2020 Data Management Trends: A Focus on Privacy, Cloud and Access

A lot of things changed in 2020, but one thing didn’t: Effective data management remains a top priority for IT pros, driven by a surge in machine learning, remote operations and cloud computing as major business priorities. New studies from Matillion and IDG Research released in November found that businesses are increasingly moving their data storage to the cloud and value data portability but are still spending too much time on data analysis and still struggling with data control. 

Those aren’t the only data management trends that gained momentum in 2020: This fall, a market study from Cohesity found that mid-to-large enterprises are interested in data management as a service and want solutions that are customizable and multifunctional. That same study also found that IT decision makers say inefficient data management makes it harder for smaller firms to compete with larger ones.

Just one of many potential examples of the importance of data management came in early December when Google announced its acquisition of Actifio, a data management company that will now become part of Google Cloud. 

Data management remains a hot area for investment and acquisitions, like the one made by Google, and that means that data privacy is as well. Even as companies readjust spending priorities amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, executives are still prioritizing investment in data privacy. Even if most jurisdictions aren’t covered by regulations like CCPA or GDPR, the damage to business security, reputation and client trust that results from a breach or data misuse is a risk.

Here are three of the data analytics and data management trends that took center stage in 2020 – with a through-line of effective and secure handling of the increasingly cloud-based enterprise environment. 

Data governance and privacy were important in the enterprise space this year and will remain so into 2021. Chief information security officers are increasingly important executives as data stores grow, enterprise becomes increasingly distributed and security threats expand.

One facet of this area is the emergence of legislation that governs the data that companies can collect, store and use. This year, the California Consumer Protection Act came into effect on January 1 and enforcement began on July 1. But many organizations reported that they were unprepared even six months after the law came into effect. The pandemic likely didn’t help matters either.

More changes to California’s data privacy legislation will come; voters in the state approved a ballot measure to beef up the CCPA and create a watchdog agency.