Protect your analytics data and your bottom line

I ran across a new paper published by my good friend and database whiz kid Shantan Kethireddy. Some of you may know or at least remember Shantan from his days as a hotshot DB2 for i query optimizer developer and dynamic technical speaker. For the past several years he has been spending his time and energy extolling the virtues of gaining business intelligence from DB2 for z/OS environments.

Shantan's perspective and unique insight really resonated with me. So much so, I read the paper 3 times (I know, I'm slow on the uptake, as in, never was a whiz kid).

The first time I read the paper, I was like - what's this guy talking about.

The second time I read the paper, I was like - hey, this guy is on to something.

The third time I read the paper, I was like, let me replace "DB2 for z/OS" with "DB2 for IBM i".

I wanted to see if the points apply to my IBM i clients around the world.  The answer is YES!  Many, if not all of the observations and recommendations apply.

I suggest you take a few minutes to read the paper, think about it, and share it with your executives and business leaders. This is important stuff.

If you want to discuss when, where and what might apply to your information management environment, please reach out to me, or talk to Mr. Kethireddy.

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Could your analytics strategy cost your business USD 100 million?

Technology trends and forces such as cloud, mobile and big data can represent big opportunities to bring analytic insight to the enterprise. They can also represent big risks if proper data security and governance controls are not in place. In 2015, one of the largest health benefits companies in the United States reported that its systems were the target of a massive data breach. This exposed millions of records containing sensitive consumer information such as social security numbers, medical IDs and income information. Various sources, including The Insurance Insider, suggest that this company's USD 100 million cyber-insurance policy would be depleted by the costs of notifying consumers of the breach and providing credit monitoring services—and that doesn’t consider other significant costs associated with a breach such as lost business, regulatory fines and lawsuits.

Data is now so important, it has a value on the balance sheet.  Cyber criminals know this. Without exception, every industry has been under attack and suffered data breaches – healthcare, government, banking, insurance, retail, telco. Once a company has been breached, hackers focus on other companies in that same industry to exploit similar vulnerabilities. In 2015 the average cost of a data breach was US$ 3.79M, causing long term damage to the brand, loss of faith and customer churn. 

As you think about the impacts of this and other data security breaches occurring at organizations worldwide, consider this question: how exposed is your business to a similar type of breach? To answer this question, you must first ask, “Where does the data that feeds our analytics processes originate?”

See the full paper here