Governance: Complicated but vital

Governance policies designed to give companies a simple set of data usage rules are very important. Such programs incorporate many high priority individual processes. However, a recent InformationWeek report contained reminders that there are a number of factors at play that make developing them a touchy area for companies.

One of the main challenges with establishing governance, according to the source, is a plethora of questions regarding what belongs in such plans. Processes like data quality  are important, but so are other management principles meant to prepare the information for analytics. This indecision among leaders can be destructive.

The many facets to governance mean companies will probably have to purchase a number of specialized products to wrangle their data. According to InformationWeek, this can also present a challenge, with the complexity of the field becoming its own test.

Data is not staying constant, either. A recent Gartner report predicted that it will balloon over the coming years, until the phenomenon currently known as big data simply becomes companies' everyday information management experience. The source explained that leading firms will have big information management systems embedded by 2015, with the term "big data" disappearing by 2020, accepted as a fact of life rather than a disruptive force.