One of the philosophical struggles of many businesses and enterprises is to decide what permissions to give which employees. This is particularly true when it comes to network administrative permissions for the business. Allowing employees all the data resources they might need to perform their job is a clear goal. But access cannot be at the detriment of the security profile of the company. So how does a business empower their users the ability to access and manage data assets in the network while ensuring the network is secure at the same time? The answer is by putting together a good data governance program.
Data Governance
A data governance program is what sets the permission policies of a business network. Policy is at the heart of administrative rights. Consistency, in turn, is at the heart of good policy. Access and permissions need to fit each employee’s role in the company, regardless of who is performing the role. As a result, it can take a lot of thought to come up with an appropriate policy plan. The input of more than one member of the organization will need to be a part of the conversation. The goal is to come up with a plan that will maintain the integrity of the business network and the data it contains, but not at the expense of smooth operations.
Who Should Be Part of a Data Governance Team?
The team that will be able to create the best possible plan will likely involve the following:
The person who is familiar with regulatory compliance standards for the industry.
The person who can speak to the business’ analytics needs
The person who can identify what business operations need to meet time and cost efficiencies, and what will increase productivity.
The team does not need to be limited to just three people, so make sure it includes those who might be able to provide insight into what makes the business network optimal for productivity, and keeping it safe from data breaches and cyber attacks both from within and without of the overall operation. It should have clear leadership, too. A Chief Data Officer should be appointed as head, with the power and responsibility for final decisions, and who is competent to oversee the entire plan and implementation.
Data Governance Technology Tools
There are a host of data governance solutions on the market. The one that will best fit the needs of a company is part of what the data governance team needs to deliberate. () Part of this is considering whether non-IT personnel will need to have certain levels of network administrative rights, and whether the system is able to assign these permissions safely. Different platforms allow for different degrees of management and visibility into who is accessing what. They offer different levels of data quality and forensics. Each brand has its own ecosystem for managing its use. It is important to learn about options and compare them.
The Results of Good Data Governance
For the business that bothers to go through this process, they can have confidence in being protected from a lot of misfortunes that regularly strike their competitors that do not practice good data governance:
Data misuse
Data security breaches
Strikes from regulatory agencies that result from non-compliance
“Bad data” (data quality problems)
Good Data Governance and Administrative Rights Puts All the Right Permissions in All the Right Places.
In short, your greatest business asset is your business’ data. If you are not exercising good data governance, you are risking the worst kind of business compromise. Make sure your employees can functionally operate within the universe of your business with ease of access to all the information it contains, but do so with all that data protected to the highest possible degree. That, in the end, is what data governance is all about.
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