Data Governance

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What Does Data Governance Mean?

Data governance (DG) refers to the general management of key data resources in a company or organization. This broad term encompasses elements of data use, storage and maintenance, including security issues and the way data flows from one point to another in an overall IT architecture.

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Because raw information is a key resource for most businesses and organizations, data governance is a logical area of overall IT strategy focus for many large enterprises.

Techopedia Explains Data Governance

A data governance plan may be crafted to specify protection mechanisms for data use and storage. This type of plan may identify key point people who are responsible for various data processes, such as backups and protection against hackers.

Although the term is seemingly generic, the DG topic is often discussed as it relates to specific business or organizational requirements. Experts may discuss when data governance is required, which is an issue that can include businesses that are too large to effectively handle data resources because they may have outgrown an original protocol. Additionally, compliance issues surrounding data governance plans may pop up, often settling key decision making questions in terms of data usage mechanisms.

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Margaret Rouse
Technology Expert
Margaret Rouse
Technology Expert

Margaret is an award-winning technical writer and teacher known for her ability to explain complex technical subjects to a non-technical business audience. Over the past twenty years, her IT definitions have been published by Que in an encyclopedia of technology terms and cited in articles by the New York Times, Time Magazine, USA Today, ZDNet, PC Magazine, and Discovery Magazine. She joined Techopedia in 2011. Margaret's idea of a fun day is helping IT and business professionals learn to speak each other’s highly specialized languages.