vault-solutions.com

Harnessing the Power of Information Governance

Data Management

Enterprise Vault and the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA)

by Leave a Comment

Back in May of 2018 the General data Protection Regulation (GDPR) went into effect in the EU (see https://www.vault-solutions.com/gdpr-time-know-dont-know/).  This regulation applies consistent protection of data across the EU nations. 

On January 1 of this year, the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) when into effect. 

The CCPA grants new rights to California consumers, including: 

  • The right to know what personal information is collected about them
  • The right to delete personal information held by businesses 
  • The right to opt-out of the sale of personal information 

It applies to legal entities that do business in the state of California and that have either: 

  • Gross annual revenue of more than $25 Million, 
  • Information on more than 50,000 consumers or households, or
  • Derive more then 50 percent of their annual revenues from selling consumer’s personal information/devices 

If you are a business that falls into this category, you must provide a way for consumers to request that you disclose what information of theirs you have, the category of information (e.g. Identifiers, Biometric), the source of the information, and the specific pieces of personal information you have collected. 

To respond, you will likely be scouring numerous internal data sources such as CRM and ERP systems, email, file shares and databases of customer information.   

If you have Veritas Enterprise Vault, you may need a way to search your archives. When searching Enterprise Vault as a larger company, you typically want to use Discovery Accelerator or the eDiscovery Platform.  In either case, you will be performing a manual search. 

Once more consumers realize they can request this information, the number of requests will increase to the point that it may be desirable to automate the process.   We’re working with one company now to provide them with an API into Enterprise Vault that would allow them to do just that and expect more companies will want to automate these searches in the future.  

Let us know if this is something that interests you!

Data Growth: Get Rid of the ROT 

by Leave a Comment

Data Growth - Get Rid of the ROT

Rot… Just hearing the word probably conjures up thoughts of an old tree trunk in the forest, maybe used banana peels, or even carved pumpkins the week after Halloween. But when we think and talk about rot, we mean Data ROT – Redundant, Obsolete, and Trivial. Not coincidentally, one of the biggest trends the industry is talking about this year is unstructured data growth, and what we can all do about this fast-growing problem.

Recently, VeritasTM shared the Databerg report, which talks about the risks of uncontrolled data growth, due mostly to our attitudes and behaviors around data itself. As a society, we tend to believe that more data means more value (fairy tale), that storage of all this data is free (tall story), and that all data is created equally (MYTH!). Unfortunately, these attitudes have led to an ever-increasing data issue – our collective hoarding problem. This impacts not only infrastructure in the form of resource consumption, but also balloons IT budgets and creates security and compliance concerns globally.

To get rid of your ROT and begin reducing your data footprint, you need to first know what you’re dealing with in terms of the data you have hiding away. One of the most significant culprits is orphaned data. And the most common formats are content-rich images, videos, and presentations left behind by former employees. Sound familiar? Good. Because identifying and understanding the ROT you have hiding in your archives is the first step towards a leaner, less costly, and more secure environment. The next step?… letting go of that obsolete data for good.

To get to expiration, you need to handle a few items BEFORE expiring any data so that important critical data isn’t lost.
1. Ensure that the proper legal holds are in place for any pending or potential litigation.
2. Make sure that the retention is set properly for each user. You don’t want to accidentally delete all of the CEO’s emails while trying to remove old email that belongs to the rank and file.
3. Identify the orphaned data, and process it, potentially with Orphaned Items Processing. For example, archived messages that a user had deleted from their mailbox may appear to have been deleted, when in reality only the shortcut was removed, leaving the item itself in the archive and potentially subject to eDiscovery.
4. If you are storing data on a Centera in Governance Edition (GE) or Compliance Edition Plus (CE+) modes, ensure the retention for items on the Centera match the retention set in Enterprise Vault.  Many customers find that the retention is not set properly and may need to be changed.  This can’t be done ‘out of the box’, so you will need a product such as our Centera Retention Manager to update the policies set on the data.

And then, once you’re ready, you can finally get rid of the ROT.

Where In the World? The Latest Data Adventures of Vault Solutions

by Leave a Comment

It’s already November, and as we got together for our Quarterly Meeting a few weeks ago to recap the last few months and plan for the end of the year, we realized that Dave has been all over the map, literally! Where have his data adventures taken him?

The Latest Data Adventures of Vault Solutions

The Vault Solutions team kicked off the fall with the Veritas Vision conference in Las Vegas. Eight members of our team spent a few days learning about the latest advancements from Veritas, networking with Google and other partners, meeting with clients and resellers from all over, and showcasing our latest product enhancements. It is always a busy and productive time in Las Vegas, and always, we came back to New Hampshire energized by what’s ahead! 

Since then, Dave’s been on the road working directly with clients and partners looking for ways to enhance their Veritas Enterprise Vault deployments, and the team has been hard at work back home. We’ve been continuing our work improving the already fast and efficient performance of Archive Accelerator Enterprise Search, and simultaneously we’ve been seeing increased traction in its adoption. 

One of the places we’re seeing that surge of interest and sales in in South Africa – hence Dave’s travels across the map! Because of local regulations customers are required to keep their data physically in the country.  Vault Solutions has been working with Veritas, their partners and customers to provide a combination of Enterprise Vault (on-premises) and our Archive Accelerator Enterprise Search product to provide a solution similar to that provided by Enterprise Vault.cloud in other countries that have an Enterprise Vault.cloud data center. 

We’re excited to finish 2017 strong, bringing even faster performance to our customers, preparing for new feature releases, and helping our clients around the world keep their data safe, secure, organized, accessible and in compliance with their local regulations.

GDPR: It’s time to know what you don’t know 

by 1 Comment

In just about seven months, on May 25, 2018 to be exact, it’s going to get real in the EU. The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) will replace the existing Data Protection Directive when it comes to regulating how companies protect the personal data of EU citizens.

GDPR- It's Time to Know What You Don't Know

The purpose of this law, and its strict penalties, is to create a more consistent protection of data across the EU nations. It will create a baseline, if you will, of standards for companies to better safeguard the processing of personal data, and frees the member states from having to draft their own compliance laws, risking inconsistencies across borders. 

GDPR is not only for companies physically located in the EU Nations, but for all businesses and organizations that market goods or services to EU residents, regardless of where they are located. Hence why there is such a global interest in this new law taking effect next year. 

While the law itself is lengthy reading, some of the key points include: 

  • Clear consent for data processing must be obtained from subjects 
  • The right to be forgotten – Article 17 – entitling data subject to have personal data erased, among other things
  • Right to data portability – Article 20 – enabling data subjects to receive their personal data, and to redistribute it to another controller  
  • Making collected data anonymous to protect privacy 
  • Requirements for providing data breach notifications 
  • Safe cross-border data transfer requirements 
  • The role of a data protection officer to oversee GDPR compliance 

The consequences for not being in compliance with this new law are significant, and not to be taken lightly. When you’re looking at up to the greater of either €20m or 4% of global annual turnover as a fine, the stakes are high for non-compliance. 

Many companies that employ best practices when it comes to data protection and processing should already be in good shape. However, everyone should make sure they study up on the language and requirements of GDPR soon to ensure they are compliant by the May 25th deadline. 

Veritas has shared a good Risk and Compliance Analyzer as a great resource, and also has many resources available on their website. Microsoft has readiness information on their site as well, and of course, there is always google where you can find a plethora of other resources like the EU GDPR home page and Wired. 

Whatever you do, take the time to make sure your practices and procedures are on point and in compliance with the new regulations, especially if you do business with anyone in the EU.

Looking Back: Vault Solutions Celebrates 10 Years

by 1 Comment

Today marks the 10th Anniversary of Vault Solutions. We’re 10 years old today! Double digits!!

Vault Solutions team celebrates 10 years

Over the course of these past ten years, we’ve had five different office spaces. Each of the four moves were to accommodate our growth. This last move, although just down the hall, brought us into a space that is twice as large as our last office. It is awesome!

We have a fantastic team comprised of former Digital Equipment Corporation employees, former Enterprise Vault customers, a gentleman who moved up from the south to join us, and even someone who knocked on our door asking for an internship as a Software Engineer. He’s now with us full-time! We’re all right here in Portsmouth, NH – engineering, QA, support – all of us. It’s relatively unusual today for a software company to have the entire team local and we love it!

As we look back, we asked a few members of our team to share what comes to mind when they think about Vault Solutions.

Dave Ouellette, President and Co-Founder:
When starting a company from scratch, it is impossible to imagine where you’ll be 10 years into it.  We certainly didn’t imagine that we’d have developed such a great team that has enabled us to build such great products, which has attracted such a fantastic list of partners and customers world-wide.  We’ve laid a solid foundation for the next 10 years of growth, and we’re looking forward to it.

Preston Butler, Senior Technical Support Representative:
I moved to Portsmouth (Winter Wonderland) from Atlanta, Georgia to work for Vault Solutions in October 2013. I never thought I’d move to this part of the country because of the cold temperatures.

Since joining Vault Solutions, I’ve learned how to use tools that aid in the investigation of Exchange and Outlook issues, network troubleshooting, and database connectivity. I keep growing and learning as we grow.

I enjoy working technical support because I love the satisfaction that comes from helping other people with whatever issues they might have. It’s rewarding.

Joe Famularo, Director of Technical Support and Services:
When I think back over the years, I reflect on how much our customer base has grown and how we’ve grown to provide the products and services they require.

My favorite memories are those where we’ve won big accounts and have had successful engagements. The times when our customers have asked for our assistance, we did the best to help them out, and then we hear them say ‘thank you.’

Every day is an ‘all hands on deck’ day. You do what has to be done. Over time, the smallest leak can cause a ship to sink, so it is at times, my job to plug that leak (or clean the coffee machine).

Jeremy Ouellette, Lead Software Engineer:
10 years ago our server room was a 2×3 foot crawl space under the basement stairs, next to where the engineers were crammed.  The “server room” door was left open of course, to prevent overheating of the server (if not the engineers), and it was loud.  Today, our office sports a dedicated server room complete with its own HVAC system, a full server rack, state-of-art networking, and a pile of parts bigger than our old crawl space could ever hope to cram in.  The engineers have more room too!  Here’s to another decade of growth!

 

We’re honored to have been part of your data archiving solutions for the past ten years, and look forward to the next ten and beyond!