At a recent meeting of The Presidents Forum, Angela Liu, President of Crispy Green, Inc. talked with the members about a relatively new topic in information technology: Data Governance.

Twenty years ago, the hot topic and big challenge was “big data” the challenges in capturing and storing massive amounts of data.

Over the years, as technology matured, the discussion changed to cloud computing as the main vehicle in storing massive amounts of data and accessing shared data from wherever we are. 

It was initially a challenge to search through all the stored data, to convert data points into useful information. So, over the years, diagnostic, predictive and prescriptive tools have developed to quickly analyze and draw helpful conclusions to aid decision making. 

Today the conversation has moved to Data Governance. Driven in part by privacy, legal and ethical concerns, it had become apparent that our use of data presents unique risks that must be properly managed.  So, Data Governance has evolved to address the development of programs and policies to monitor how our data is being created, collected, circulated and controlled.

In describing each of these progressions (storing, accessing, understanding and governing) Ms Liu facilitated our discussion of the unique and evolving challenges at each step of the way. Technologies emerged to meet changing needs. And evolving technologies in turn made us aware of new opportunities and possibilities. We are just beginning to use analytics and data visualization. Now we must also concentrate on proper governance of the data.

The larger lesson for us all is that changes is inevitable. The above progression is typical in a business climate that prizes innovation and creativity. And change is always challenging. Angela’s presentation and the excellent discussion helped us consider how to take care of the present with one eye on the future.