Data Management - Best Practices

In the last ten years, spending on public cloud services has skyrocketed, becoming a big part of budgets. Predictions suggest that cloud storage spending will soon match half of all technology spending. While storing data in the cloud is seen as cost-effective, it still eats up a lot of the budget. So, it's important to focus on cutting cloud storage costs.

Regularly cleaning out unnecessary data can help lower costs and make managing data easier. IT habits often lead to duplicate data, which drives up costs. Using techniques to remove duplicate data also helps keep costs down. It's also important to only collect the data you really need.

For example, avoiding uploading personal photos or videos from phones can save a lot of space. Having a plan for managing data's lifecycle is crucial too. It helps cut costs, keeps data compliant with regulations, and avoids holding onto outdated or unimportant data, which is essential in today's data-driven world.

Several types of data can consume cloud storage space:

• Redundant Data: Duplicate copies of files or data stored across multiple locations can unnecessarily increase storage usage.
• Unused or Outdated Data: Data that is no longer relevant, obsolete, or outdated but still stored in the cloud can contribute to unnecessary storage usage.
• Emails: Emails stored in Microsoft services such as Outlook, Outlook.com, or Exchange Online count towards storage limits.
• Personal Data: Personal files, documents, or media uploaded by employees for non-work-related purposes.
• Large Files: Files such as high-resolution images, videos, and multimedia content.
• Archived Data: Historical data, old backups, or archived files that are rarely accessed but still retained for compliance or reference purposes.
• Generated Data: Data generated by IoT devices, sensors, or automated systems can quickly accumulate if not efficiently processed or managed.

Understanding the types of data that can consume cloud storage is essential for implementing effective storage management strategies and optimizing cloud storage usage.

Enterprise Data Stewardship Policy

• All University information that is stored, processed, or distributed is subject to the specific parameters of the University Data Stewardship Guidelines, Board of Regents policies, Montana state government policies, Montana State University policies, and state or federal laws as they may apply. These guidelines apply to apply to all University faculty, staff, students, and patrons.
• The Enterprise Data Stewardship Policy can be found at this link: https://www.montana.edu/policy/enterprise_it/data_stewardship.html

 Data Retention

• Montana University System has a general record retention schedule based on the type of data being stored.
• More information on retention schedules can be found here: https://www.montana.edu/policy/hr_policies/mus_record_retention_schedule.html

Data Types (What Type of Data Is This File?)

• Data retention is dependent on the type of data that is stored.
• If you need to identify the data type, please contact a data steward as listed at this link: https://www.montana.edu/policy/enterprise_it/data_stewardship.html
• UIT does not provide guidance on data type classifications.

Data File Storage Options

• University Information Technology offers the file storage options for MSU users for storing MSU Owned data.
• More information on available data storage options can be found at this link: https://www.montana.edu/uit/file-storage/

What Type of Data Can Be Stored Where?

• To choose the right location for the data you need to store, please refer to the table found at the Data Storage Security link here: https://www.montana.edu/uit/file-storage/security-grid.html