Should you spring clean your data?

As the seasons change and we welcome in some fresh spring air, it's the perfect time to give your data and IT systems a thorough clean. Just like tidying up your home, maintaining a clean and organised digital environment can improve efficiency, enhance security, and ensure smooth operations.

What to consider before you start:

When organising company data files, it's important to consider various risks and their corresponding mitigations to ensure data security, integrity, and accessibility. Here are some key risks and mitigations to keep in mind. Don't just decide to move, archive or delete what you think is old business data until you have considered the following.

1. Data Governance and Management: Poor data governance can lead to data silos, inconsistencies, and inefficiencies. Before your spring clean review your data governance policies, define data ownership and responsibilities, and implement centralised data storage and management practices.
2. Access Controls: One of the primary risks to data is unauthorised access, which can lead to data breaches and loss of confidential information. To mitigate this risk, a company should have strong access controls and encryption for sensitive data. Review your access controls, permissions, and sensitivity tags before organising data.
3. Data Loss: Every business should have regular data back ups using reliable backup solutions, such as cloud storage or external hard drives. Ensure the last backup was successful before organising data files and if needed contact your IT support to complete an extra back up. Does your backup recovery work? Test the recovery of a file to check your back up solution is working effectively.
4. Awareness and training: Now is also a good time of year to conduct GDPR and information security training/refresher training for employees.

By considering these risks and implementing the corresponding mitigations, you can approach a data spring clean with confidence.

Here are some essential tips to help you spring clean your data and data management processes:

1. Audit Your Data Start by conducting a comprehensive audit of your data. Identify redundant, outdated, or irrelevant files and archive them. If duplicate documentation is found ensure anything archived is the older version. Review how version control is handled.

2. Organise Your Data The remaining data can be saved in clearly labeled folders and subfolders. This will make it easier to locate important information and reduce clutter. Files should only be deleted after appropriate checks have been made. If moving data consideration should be made to any existing users/processes that relied on a file location.

3. Review and Strengthen Security Measures Evaluate your current security measures and identify areas for improvement. Who has access? Do all systems require multi-factor authentication or single sign on? Are there any user accounts that need removing?

4. Review and Update IT Policies Ensure that your IT policies are up-to-date and align with current best practices. Review your data retention policies, security protocols, and acceptable use policies. Communicate any updates to your team and provide training to ensure compliance.

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5. Optimise System Performance Over time, your IT systems can accumulate temporary files and other unnecessary data that can slow down performance. Ask your IT support provider about cleaning up these files to improve overall system speed.

6. Clean Up Email Inboxes A cluttered email inbox can be overwhelming and reduce productivity. Send out reminders to colleagues to delete unnecessary/old emails, unsubscribe from unwanted newsletters, and organise important messages into folders. Maybe set up email rules to automatically sort your incoming emails and keep your inbox tidy.

7. Plan for Future Growth As your organisation grows, so will your data and IT needs. Plan for future growth by assessing your current infrastructure, data storage and backup solution. Identify areas that may require upgrades or expansion. Consider investing in scalable solutions that can accommodate your evolving needs.

By following these tips, you can create a cleaner, more efficient, and secure digital environment, and best of all, keeping your data clean and tidy can reduce your data storage costs in the future and get you ready to harness the benefits of AI agents.

Did you know? Storing 1TB of data for a year will cost between ￡50-￡100, uses around 100 kWh of electricity, and generates roughly 10kg of CO2 emissions

If you need some further advice on managing your data give us a call on 0333 240 0660 or

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