1. In the mid-60’s TV show Get Smart, Don Adams’ fellow female agent was Agent number what?

a. 79

b. 89

c. 99

d. 229

2. True or False

Unstructured data is human-generated, existing on Windows and Linux/Unix File servers, SharePoint and Exchange Platforms.

3. Who were Get Smarts’ creators?

a. Steve Allen

b. Mel Brooks and Buck Henry

c. Buck Henry and Cesar Romero

d. Mel Brooks

4. True or False

Unstructured data on average represents 80% of your organization’s data and is multiplying at 30-50% a year.

5. What device did “Control” utilize in order to keep information confidential?

a. A tricked-out umbrella

b. A private closet

c. The Cone of Silence

d. Invisible Ink

6. Which of the following questions regarding the management of unstructured data is difficult for most organizations to answer?

a. Who owns what data?

b. Who has permission to the data?

c. What data is highly sensitive and over-exposed?

d. How can exposed data be remedied without disturbing the business?

e. What data is being deleted? By whom?

f. What data is walking out of the company and with whom?

g. All the above.

7. Which was not one of Maxwell Smart’s catchphrases?

a. Maxwell Smart will not fail.

b. I asked you not to tell me that.

c. Would you believe…

d. Missed it by that much.

e. And…loving it.

8. True or False

TransAccel Group has partnered with Varonis Systems to offer solutions that address the concerns regarding the proliferation of unstructured data by offering audit trail analysis, permissions hierarchies and transparency, alerts, and data transfer solutions, among other benefits.

9. Which of the following characters was not featured in Get Smart?

a. The Chief

b. Dr. Iron

c. Hymie the Robot

d. Ludwig Von Siegfried

e. Mr. Big

10. Varonis software reduces risks to data in which of the following ways:

a. Data mistakenly exposed is identified and locked down safely, including sensitive and regulated content

b. Access controls are much more restricted; employees have access to only what they need

c. Data owners with knowledge of their data assets are in control; the right people review data access and group memberships

d. Every file and email touch is captured and analyzed

e. All use is monitored

f. Automatic baselines are created for every user allowing deviations to be detected

g. Abuse is detected and real-time alerts are triggered

h. By digitizing all past Get Smart Episodes

i. All the above, except (h)

If you answered questions 1 (c), 3 (b), 5 (c), 7 (a), and 9 (b),you probably watched too much TV as I child, as I did. If you got them all wrong you’re probably a lot younger than I am.

If you answered questions 2 (True), 4 (True), 6 (g), 8 (True), 10 (i), you realize how critically important it is to get a handle on your human-generated unstructured data.

Did you know that if Maxwell Smart and Control did not confront and defeat KAOS, the entire world would have been in disarray? Did you also know that by 2020, a typical company will have to manage and protect 14 times more data than it has today? Moreover, they’ll have to make sure the right data is available to the right people, wherever they are, and on whatever devices they use. The relentless growth of data carries big opportunities and serious risks for organizations of all sizes. The intersection of opportunity and risk, and enabling the safe collaboration needed to drive business forward was described on Forbes.com as “the defining challenge of the age of big data.” Sounds like potential CHAOS to us.

Please allow TransAccel to assist you in evaluating your current needs relative to the management, remediation and governance of your growing unstructured data. We would be pleased to schedule a discussion or a brief demonstration of Varonis’ powerful software solution as well as the added value that TransAccel brings to the challenge.

As Agent 86 would say, Would you believe the management and protection of unstructured data is a significant and troubling concern that needs attention today rather than waiting until it is too far out of control? In this case, the answer is absolutely YES.

How many times has IT management staff felt that their business partners don’t appreciate or understand the effort, time and money required to satisfy a business demand? On the other hand, how many times do you think business partners wonder if IT is focusing on the correct enterprise initiatives, or why their requests are not satisfied to their expectation level? The answer? Too many times to count on both hands. Without transparency, the worst fears of both sides and all stakeholders become a reality.

Webster defines Transparency as “the quality that makes something obvious or easy to understand.” At TransAccel, we view Transparency as a prerequisite for making better supply and demand decisions that are based on cutting the right costs in the right way, while maintaining what is most valuable to the organization. With transparency, the IT organization can participate in valuable discussions that balance costs with IT benefits.

Transparency should exist across all sectors of IT – but especially crucial are:

• Portfolio management
• IT budgeting, performance management, chargebacks and cost allocations
• Measurement and benchmarking
• Investment planning
• IT service portfolios and catalogs

Poor Transparency exists when the value and tradeoffs associated with IT spending are not quantitatively discussed within the larger context of business strategy and goals. Typical results of this information disconnect are inaccurate budget forecasting, inefficient investment planning, and the wrong projects draining away resources, to name a few. Another consequence? Prior optimization goals are often repeated or even increased in following years.

Benefits of Transparency include better demand and supply management, budget forecasting, investment planning, increased governance, respect from business partners, identification of business-valued initiatives, and the elimination of non-core and non-differentiating resource-sapping projects.

The goal is to run IT like a business. TransAccel would be happy to assist your organization with aligning IT services and activities to business goals, and mapping those services to interdependencies and resource requirements.

As organizations strive to achieve leaner and more cost effective IT departments, Transparency is one of four basic cost optimization principles that will allow you to drop additional coins into your piggy bank.

The same can be said about an IT organization’s approach to cost optimization. After years of one-off tactical cost cutting, many businesses are facing the challenge of ongoing and continuous cost optimization. For many, this is no longer the exception but the new reality.

The usual approach to cutting costs is the purely tactical. Problem is, when the clear cost culprits have been identified and reduced or eliminated, future optimization initiatives can become more arbitrary and problematic. Even the low-hanging fruit that appears to be an obvious candidate for reduction to some may not be to others—like your business clients.

In a recent Gartner survey, CIO’s were asked, “What are the main barriers preventing organizations from achieving continuous optimization of IT costs?” Sixty-five percent of the respondents indicated that it was a matter of mindset—that is, creating the environment necessary for all resources to work together, move in the same direction, and agree on the same strategy.

We agree. TransAccel believes there’s a better approach to determining cost optimization decisions—one based on four “Guiding-Principles.” The benefits of using this method include a more consistent alignment with the company’s strategic drivers, a consensus among business leaders, a long-term framework for ongoing cost optimization initiatives, and a correct way to maintain what is most important to the organization.

The Four Principles are:

1. Transparency – IT and business leaders need to explicitly agree on what IT provides the business, and what the business needs from IT. Often, basic cost optimization practices lack quantitative data to define consumption, drivers, and inhibitors for IT and business services. Transparency provides different viewpoints of IT spending, allowing for better consensus and agreement regarding opportunities for optimization and prioritization.
2. Flexibility – Maintaining a prudent balance between both internal and external resources allows an organization to remove or add resources as the business climate changes. Sourcing IT on a variable basis is a good strategy for continual optimization.
3. Simplification – Running IT systems on standardized platforms leads to consistent business processes and well-defined IT services, which reduce costs. In highly complex environments, IT unit costs can be as much as 25% higher.
4. Discipline – In order to maintain constant focus and vigilance on cost optimization initiatives, an accountable and proactive owner should be delegated (normally the CIO), who will utilize dashboards and metrics to measure success rather than wait for cost targets to be handed down from top management. Additionally, establishing an optimization team that includes leaders from outside IT to help weigh business outcomes and constraints is another option worth considering.

In later blogs, we will explore some of these important principles in more detail. However, the four above are critical if a continuous and effective cost optimization environment is going to exist.

The goal is to manage IT as a business, and to leave all the laughs to Groucho Marx.