Using Classification to Manage Big Data

Using Classification to Manage Big Data How Your Users Are The Key to Success WHITE PAPER Microsoft Global Go-To-Market partner for Messaging in Defence and Public Safety

Contents The Challenge 3 Why You Need Classification 3 The Key to Success 3 How to Engage Your Users 3 1. Familiarity is the foundation 3 2. Go with the (work) flow 4 3. One size doesn t fit all 4 4. Many applications - one user experience 4 5. Speak the language of your business 4 6. Spread awareness 5 7. Walk before you run 5 8. Dealing with legacy data 5 9. Catering for diversity 5 10. The only constant is change 6 In Conclusion 6 2012 Boldon James Ltd. All rights reserved. The copyright of this paper is solely vested in Boldon James Ltd. The contents must not be reproduced, used, distributed or disclosed (wholly or in part) without the prior written permission of Boldon James Ltd. The Boldon James logo and all product names are trademarks of Boldon James Ltd. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners and are acknowledged. Boldon James Ltd. (registered number 5357068) is registered in Great Britain with registered offices at Cody Technology Park, Ively Road, Farnborough, Hants, GU14 0LX. 2

The Challenge According to a 2012 survey of 1700 CEOs across 64 countries i, almost one-quarter of CEOs say their organisations are underperforming when it comes to deriving value from data. Echoing many of his peers one CEO from North America acknowledged, We have lots of data, but only 10 percent of it is useful information. Gartner ii predict that by 2015, 80% of enterprise information will be unstructured material that does not conform to neat data models and spans all forms of content including email, documents, images, videos and text, making it difficult to manage with traditional business systems and security solutions. So where is all this unstructured data coming from? The dominant sources of unstructured data in most enterprises have been the very productivity tools that users have become so dependent upon including email systems and word processing applications. Even without the contribution from new social media and other high velocity data sources, most organisations have little grasp of the data governance issues posed by their existing stores of unstructured data, let alone how to exploit the business value that may be locked up within it. IDC iii hold the view that the amount of information that needs to be secured is already growing faster than our ability to secure it. For organisations already saturated with data, the flood of unstructured data arising from the Big Data phenomenon threatens to overwhelm traditional Data Loss Prevention and Archiving solutions and strategies raising costs and adding risk. Why You Need Classification Classification of unstructured data is fundamental to identifying which information is useful to your business and why, which in turn allows you to correctly exploit and protect that information. IDC s view is that Big Data will only deliver true value to your business through the addition of metadata that will tell you which data is needed and for what purpose. Classification engages users in structuring data at its source, enhancing their awareness of information security at the same time as applying the critical metadata that captures their understanding as to the true context and business value of the information. To get users to adopt classification, the challenge is to make it part of the day-to-day routine of every different user community within the business. The Key to Success In most cases, employees are either the source of unstructured data or are directly involved in its handling. Having users apply their knowledge and insight to this data is critical if an organisation is to correctly identify the useful information within this rising tide of data. But how can you engage your users in this process? The answer is twofold, firstly to provide users with a tool to consistently classify this information and secondly to ensure that such tools fit seamlessly into the working practices of those users. It s vital that your users embrace the use of classification, as without this acceptance even the best technology solution will fail. How to Engage Your Users So what should you look for in a classification technology in order to maximise user engagement? 1. Familiarity is the foundation Classification should fit seamlessly into the tools that users employ day-today when creating and handling unstructured data. Predominantly users employ Windows and the Microsoft Office applications when working with unstructured data. Microsoft Office applications now present a common ribbon bar interface where users find task-related collections of features and a classification solution must integrate into this interface in order to feel familiar to users and fit within their patterns of use for such applications. Although users will never see the classification metadata that is embedded in their emails, documents and files, they will need to be reminded of the current classification when working with information. To accomplish this, a summary label needs to be constantly visible when working with a document or message and, better still, this label needs to display a colour as a strong visual clue of the classification of the material being handled. 3

2. Go with the (work)flow Adding any steps to the normal workflow of your users is a challenge unless a) users see the value in what they are being asked to do and b) there are as few new steps as possible. For users to relate to the idea of classifying information then the labels you ask them to apply must relate to familiar business processes for example applying Legally privileged might be more meaningful to those in a Legal department than just Confidential. Your classification solution should therefore be able to present labelling choices in a manner best suited to each user community, rather than forcing them to all learn an abstract labelling schema. Behind the scenes, your metadata labels can still be based on a common schema, but that schema can be presented to the users in ways that suit their business activities. Even if the classification choices are made meaningful to users, you still need to ensure they can make those choices quickly and effectively. Where even a moderate number of choices are involved, the selection interface should allow users quick access to labels they used recently and to record and use those which they use most frequently. Where users will only ever need to choose between a small set of labels, then the interface should allow these choices to be presented as individual buttons in the Office ribbon interface providing single-click selection. 3. One size doesn t fit all Classification needs to be in use by all your knowledge workers if it to be successful in tackling unstructured data. Even small organisations will find that there are differing needs between communities of users and in addressing these differences you risk having to dumb down your labelling scheme to the lowest common denominator. A far better approach is to tailor the classification experience for each of these communities, giving each a relevant user experience streamlined for their needs. To accomplish this, the classification solution needs to be adept at defining and managing multiple labelling policies, where each may actually only be a subtle variant on a common core policy. 4. Many applications - one user experience Your knowledge workers will not just be using one application when authoring and managing data. As a result it s vital that a classification solution provides a common user experience across key productivity applications such as Outlook, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Project, and Visio. Likewise for those communities that may use alternative email clients such as Outlook Web App or IBM Lotus Notes, the classification solution should extend a common user experience to these users, allowing users to migrate easily between email clients without having to relearn classification techniques. 5. Speak the language of your business Some classification solutions can appear to have a terminology all of their own, but you should not expect your users to have to understand this. To ensure users can relate to the activity of classification the solution must allow you to adapt all aspects of the terminology presented to your users. This tailoring of the user interface will make sure that all choices and feedback displayed are meaningful both to each user s core activities and to your business. Likewise if your business has users with differing primary language needs then the classification solution should be able to present each of those groups with an appropriate localisation. In short, your classification solution should allow you to customise every aspect of the text presented to the users and to deliver relevant customisations to each distinct user community. 4

6. Spread awareness When introducing the process of classification to your users you should always plan for an awareness campaign, but in addition your classification solution should itself be capable of contributing to educating your users as to its purpose within the business. To accomplish this, the classification solution should provide precise, tailored feedback where user actions contravene your policy and allow users to display further online guidance relating to any warning that may be presented. Whilst a classification solution should offer a range of interface styles to make the act of classification intuitive, your users will still need guidance on your classification policy and the classification solution should itself act as a conduit to this guidance and so avoid help desk queries. 7. Walk before you run Whilst it can seem attractive to oblige users to adhere to all aspects of your classification policy from Day One, it may prudent to start by auditing and analysing user behaviour before deciding what aspects of your policy may need enforcement. This softly, softly approach minimises any initial impact in deploying a classification solution and allows you to determine where to focus your user education efforts as well as which aspects may need enforcement. The classification solution should offer options for enforcement that either warn the user of an issue but allow them to continue or alert them to the issue and prevent them from continuing until the issue is resolved. In either case the solution must guide the user as to how to resolve the issue, offering quick fix remedies where appropriate. If you elect to enforce a number of aspects of your classification policy then the classification solution should present feedback to the user in a combined interaction, rather than as a drip feed of successive warnings. 8. Dealing with legacy data An important aspect to consider when deploying a classification solution is what to do with the mountain of unstructured data that already exists within your organisation. You could elect to classify all new data and only classify old data when it is next modified. However this would still leave a mass of unstructured data in place that falls outside of the data governance improvements that classification provides. The alternative of distracting users from their day-to-day responsibilities to have them classify existing material would create an onerous task that will serve to antagonise. Ideally your classification solution will provide tools for power users and administrators to deal with mass classification of sets of information assets, offering integration with enterprise search and data governance tools that can locate and organise the assets to be labelled. In addition to tackling legacy data, there will also be unstructured data being routinely generated by automated tasks and processes, such as reports. Rather than relying on users to manually label this data, the classification solution should provide tools that allow this data to be automatically labelled as part of the generation process. Such preparation of existing data and automatically generated data will ensure that users are given a jumpstart in their use of classification. 9. Catering for diversity The increasing trend towards key employees using their own devices (the so-called Bring Your Own Device phenomenon) inevitably adds to the range of devices and applications that will be used to create and manage unstructured data. As a result your classification solution will need to accommodate a wide variety of key productivity applications such as email clients. Where the business offers web-based email to users in the form of Outlook Web App, then your classification solution may need to accommodate both the Premium and Light modes of OWA in order to support the spectrum of web browsers used on tablet devices and the like. In addition where you have users with accessibility issues requiring low-vision options, then OWA Light may be essential in order to support screen-reader technology. 5

10. The only constant is change After you have established use of classification within your business there will inevitably be changes that impact your labelling policy and it s users. Within your labelling scheme there may be a natural lifecycle to some of the label values, for example if you were to use project names in your labels then these will have a lifecycle that needs to be reflected, likewise a department name may change due to restructuring. To minimise impact on your users the classification solution should cope with retiring of label values from the active set (e.g. when a project ends) and also replacing values (e.g. when projects are combined or departments are amalgamated). If the changes to the labelling scheme warrant it then tools will be needed to reclassify sets of existing data. The need for collaboration and partnership with other organisations is now an established trend for successful businesses. The IBM CEO Survey 2012 revealed that only 4 per cent of CEOs now plan to do everything in-house. This compares with 2008, when a little over half of the CEOs interviewed planned to partner extensively. Such collaboration will require that businesses can exchange and share data in a controlled manner, which in turn requires that any classification solution is adept at interpreting and interoperating with the labelling schemes of other organisations, for example to convert third party labels into your own scheme. Without such interworking your users will be faced with having to understand the handling and safeguarding requirements of each partner s data. Another driver of change is company acquisitions and mergers, where new communities of users, with possibly differing IT infrastructures, will need to be accommodated within a common classification strategy. It may take months or years for combined organisations to deploy a unified IT infrastructure, so in the meantime your classification solution will need to accommodate infrastructure variations such as different versions of Microsoft operating system and Microsoft Office applications as well as disjoint operational environments such as segregated Active Directory trees. Without adequate coverage for these variations, you will have communities of users unable to participate in the classification process. In Conclusion Information classification is a vital weapon in bringing unstructured data under control and allowing your business to exploit this rising tide of data rather than sinking beneath its waves. Your users are the key to success with a classification strategy and the technology that supports that strategy must fit your business rather than force your users to fit in with the technology. Boldon James Classifier provides a comprehensive classification solution that masters all the crucial elements identified in this paper, empowering your users to meet the business challenge posed by unstructured data. For more information, visit References i 2012 IBM CEO Study: http://www-935.ibm.com/services/uk/en/c-suite/ceostudy2012/ ii Big Data Infographic and Gartner 2012 Top 10 Strategic Tech Trends. Business Analytics 3.0 (blog) (November 11, 2011). www.practicalanalytics.wordpress.com/2011/11/11/big-data-infographic-and-gartner-2012-top-10-strategic-tech-trends iii Extracting Value from Chaos. IDC IView, EMC Corporation (June 2011). www.emc.com/collateral/analyst-reports/idc-extracting-value-fromchaos-ar.pdf 2012 Boldon James. All Rights Reserved. No part of this document may be reproduced in any form by any means, nor may it be distributed without the permission of Boldon James, nor may it be resold or distributed by any entity other than Boldon James, without the prior written authorization of Boldon James. Boldon James does not provide legal advice. Nothing in this document constitutes legal advice, nor shall this document or any software product or other offering made reference to herein serve as a substitute for the reader s compliance with any Laws (including but not limited to any act, statue, regulation, rule, directive, administrative order and/or executive order) made reference to in this document. If necessary, the reader should consult with competent legal counsel regarding any Laws made reference to herein. Boldon James makes no representation or warranty regarding the completeness or accuracy of the information contained in this document. This document is provided as is without warranty of any kind. All express or implied representations, conditions and warranties, including any implied warranty of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose, are disclaimed. About Boldon James For over 20 years we have helped organisations with the most demanding communication requirements manage sensitive information securely and in compliance with legislation and standards. Our solutions extend the capabilities of Microsoft core infrastructure products to allow secure information exchange and in 2006 we were elevated to Microsoft Global Go-To-Market Partner. Boldon James is a wholly-owned subsidiary of QinetiQ, with offices in the UK, US, Australia and Europe, and channel partners worldwide. BD/WP/14111 2 6