Data Governance Standards Process

 

Data governance describes the overall management of an organization’s data. A data governance program should ensure that the data an organization needs to fulfill its mission is available, that the data’s integrity is intact, and that the data is secure. A sound data governance program includes a defined set of procedures and a plan to execute those procedures.

Microsoft’s data loss prevention (DLP) and data retention solutions are designed to assist an organization in detecting, classifying, protecting, and monitoring the organization’s critical and sensitive data. However, these tools assume that a data governance program (shown as Define Governance Goals in this simplified model) is already in place.

Define Governance Goals involves understanding what data is critical or sensitive, who needs access to such data, how it should be secured, and how long it must be kept.

After this step is complete, Microsoft’s DLP and data retention services can be used to detect the critical and sensitive data, classify it, protect it, and monitor it.