The term data governance has been around for decades, but only in the last few years have we begun to redefine our understanding of what the term means outside the world of regulatory compliance, and to establish data standards. This rapid evolution of data governance can be attributed to businesses looking to leverage massive amounts of data for analytics across the enterprise, while attempting to navigate the increasingly rugged terrain of worldwide regulatory requirements.
Data governance is a critical data management mechanism. Most businesses today have a data governance program in place. However, according to a recent Gartner survey, “more than 87 percent of organizations are classified as having low business intelligence (BI) and analytics maturity,” highlighting how organizations struggle to develop governance strategies that do more than ensure regulatory compliance.