Managing Data Lineage with Concentric AI

When it comes to data protection, the concept of data lineage is sometimes an afterthought. Without a solid grasp on data lineage, organizations are essentially addressing data risk blindfolded. 

What is data lineage? 

Data lineage refers to the tracking of data as it moves through the various stages of a system or process — from its origin or source to its final destination. Data lineage provides a visual representation of the data’s lifecycle, including where it comes from, how it’s transformed, and where it goes.  

Why is data lineage so crucial for data protection and identification?  

Here’s an example that underscores the importance of data lineage. Let’s say an organization has 30 different versions of a sensitive contract residing in various data stores throughout its infrastructure: cloud, on-prem, SaaS storage, and unstructured data… it can be anywhere.  

Many questions arise, such as:  

• Where is the data located? 
• Which version is the oldest version, and which is newer?  
• How do we know where all the variations of that particular contract may be residing across repositories?  
• Where are the thematically similar data? 
• Who has the data been shared with, and who is accessing it regularly? 
• How have variations of the data sprawled across the enterprise over time and in what order? 

Benefits of well-managed data lineage  

When an organization has a solid grasp of its data lineage, they gain numerous benefits, including: 

Transparency and Trust 

Data lineage provides a clear and comprehensive view of how data is sourced, processed, and consumed — allowing organizations to trust their data. After all, how good is data if it is not accurate, consistent, and reliable? 

Data Quality 

Organizations can make better business decisions by understanding data’s entire journey and identifying redundant processes or changes that might affect data quality. 

Regulatory Compliance 

Many industries and organizations are subject to strict data regulations like GDPR and CCPA. Data lineage helps organizations demonstrate compliance by showing regulators how data is handled, processed, and stored. It also creates an audit trail, making it easier for regulatory inquiries and audits. 

Data Breach Response 

In the event of a data breach, understanding data lineage can help organizations quickly identify the source of the breach and the affected data, accelerate response time and improve damage control. 

Data Identification 

Data lineage tools often come with metadata management capabilities, which provide additional information about the data, such as its meaning, quality, and ownership. By understanding the lineage, organizations can more easily identify sensitive or personal data, ensuring that it’s handled appropriately.  

Data Protection 

With a clear view of where data originates and where it’s used, organizations can implement more effective data protection measures. For instance, if a particular piece of data is identified as containing sensitive information, protective measures can be applied to ensure that the data remains secure throughout its lifecycle.
 

Why choose Concentric AI for managing data lineage? 

Concentric AI addresses today’s modern data security challenges by identifying all sensitive data in the cloud, from intellectual property to regulated PII/PCI/PHI data, without the need for complex rules or policies. 

Our solution establishes which data is being shared and with whom, be it internal users or external third parties. 

 How Concentric AI can help you visually track data lineage 

Here’s the best part: Concentric AI allows you to actually trace the lineage of a particular file or a particular data record and look at how it has travelled through the enterprise with all the appropriate modifications, ensuring that organizations have a clear understanding of their data’s journey.  

This includes not just duplicate data but also data variants that are not exactly identical but have been modified.  

Typically, it is very difficult for an organization to comb through all their data stores to determine where all the versions of that particular piece of data are, who has access, and whether there is any inconsistent permissioning. 

 For example, with Concentric AI, you may have many older versions of similar pieces of data sitting somewhere; it may be three or four years old. The unique ability of providing a clear visualization of your data lineage is a functionality that no one in the industry offers. 

Here, the data can be moved to secondary storage to reduce the risk associated with that data — a clear cost saving, because the more data you have in primary storage, the more expensive it is.  

In addition, Concentric AI can autonomously help ensure that semantically similar data has the appropriate permissioning and access controls. Our solution seamlessly ensures that only the right people have access to the right sets of data, agnostic to location. 

Ultimately, with Concentric AI, organizations can reduce storage costs, limit risk exposure, and reduce data risk by ensuring consistent permissioning across this data.  

Book a demo today to see firsthand — with your own data — how Concentric AI can quickly and easily be deployed to manage and track data lineage in your organization.