Symantec brings order to unstructured data

Security firm Symantec is aiming to make it easier for firms to make sense of their unstructured data with the launch of its Data Insight for Storage 2.0.

Data Insight, the firm said, will help enterprises to manage the sheer volume of data that they produce including emails, documents, files and spreadsheets, and give them some sort of control over them.

“For many organisations, data growth is uncontrollable not only from a management of infrastructure standpoint, but also from a policy standpoint,” said Don Angspatt, vice president of product management, Storage and Availability Management Group, Symantec.

“With Data Insight for Storage, IT managers can have the visibility and control of unstructured data, and also use the resources these files reside on more strategically.”

As well as making information easier to use, the firm said that Data Insight would let IT teams charge back to other areas of the business for their storage consumption, while also improving data lifecycle management and archiving in general.

For example, the tool can be used to map individuals to their department, and from there to the amount of storage they use. As well as making storage use more transparent, Symantec said that it would remove the risk of information being created with no associations.

By using its product, it explained, firms can create a data owner identification process, which will locate and organise data. Any data found to be lacking ownership is forwarded to administrators, and recommended for archiving or deletion.

Data Insight for Storage is available now, with pricing starting at $676 per TB.