Dark data, otherwise known as unstructured, unmanaged, and uncategorized information is a major problem for many organizations. Many organizations don’t have the will or systems in place to automatically index and categorize their rapidly growing unstructured dark data, especially in file shares, and instead rely on employees to manually manage their own information. This reliance on employees is a no-win situation because employees have neither the incentive nor the time to actively manage their information.

Organizations find themselves trying to figure out what to do with huge amounts of dark data, particularly when they’re purchasing TBs of new storage annually because they’ve run out.

Issues with dark data:

• Consumes costly storage space and resources – Most medium to large organizations provide terabytes of file share storage space for employees and departments to utilize. Employees drag and drop all kinds of work related files (and personal files like personal photos, MP3 music files, and personal communications) as well as PSTs and work station backup files. The vast majority of these files are unmanaged and are never looked at again by the employee or anyone else.
• Consumes IT resources – Personnel are required to perform nightly backups, DR planning, and IT personnel to find or restore files employees could not find.
• Masks security risks – File shares act as “catch-alls” for employees. Sensitive company information regularly finds its way to these repositories. These file shares are almost never secure so sensitive information like personally identifiable information (PII), protected health information (PHI, and intellectual property can be inadvertently leaked.
• Raises eDiscovery costs – Almost everything is discoverable in litigation if it pertains to the case. The fact that tens or hundreds of terabytes of unindexed content is being stored on file shares means that those terabytes of files may have to be reviewed to determine if they are relevant in a given legal case. That can add hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars of additional cost to a single eDiscovery request.

To bring this dark data under control, IT must take positive steps to address the problem and do something about it. The first step is to look to your file shares.