Dataglobal is promising the ability to automate metadata attachment as part of a new data classification solution it has developed for Microsoft Windows Server 2012

dg classification 2.0 is an upcoming release of its data classification platform designed to allow enterprise security, GRC, eDiscovery and storage management applications to manage data and files with higher precision and more efficiency.

When working in tandem with Windows Server 2012, dg classification 2.0 will take advantage of the ability of Microsoft’s Dynamic Access Control (DAC) infrastructure to attach metadata to files as they are being classified.

dg classification 2.0 aims to provide  a unified classification of unstructured data across the enterprise and make it available to a wide variety of applications. As a result, organisations can auto-classify once, in one location, and have that classification trigger actions across multiple solutions. dg classification is also able to continuously assess new data files and manage changes to existing data in realtime, ensuring corporate assets are protected and managed 24/7.

It will identify high toxicity data that needs to be isolated or destroyed based on internal and external policies.

In addition to using the traditional metadata such as date created, date referenced, file type (e. g., Microsoft Word or Adobe PDF), dg Classification 2.0 will be able to automate data classification at a much more granular level by analysing its content and assigning business-related Document Types (e.g., invoice, contract or proprietary research document).

Organisations can define their own Document Types and assign properties and classification rules to fit their individual business needs. This enables the owner of a proprietary research document to identify very specific properties and classification rules so the system can automatically assign security and retention actions to other similar documents. dg Classification 2.0 will then be able to rapidly and continuously classify large volumes of data across an enterprise or data centre.

“The use of content analytics for automatic classification is an important trend that IDC has been watching with interest. Content analytics can provide more accurate and comprehensive results than using manual or even semi-automatically tagged approaches,” said Dave Schubmehl, Research Manager, Search & Discovery of IDC.

“dataglobal’s approach of using both attribute-based and content analysis technologies to drive automatic classification appears to strike a good balance between high performance and high accuracy.”

In order to offer this level of functionality, dg classification 2.0:
- Reduces the complexity of enterprise-wide data classification by creating three parameters: Document Types, Properties for these types, and Rules associated with these Properties;
- Provides a cascading set of classifiers to assign properties and Document Types to data objects based on External Attributes such as owner, file type, path, last used, and Content-based Attributes such as PII data, confidential information, invoice structure and/or similarity to a training set of documents;
- Takes advantage of Windows Server 2012 technology to automatically tag information objects within the system with the appropriate metadata, replacing the need for dedicated and separate repositories;
- Permanently attaches these information object classifications to the object, regardless of where it might be moved within the enterprise, eliminating the single point of failure vulnerability;
- Utilises a proven support-vector-machine technology to classify millions of documents based on their properties and associated rules; and
- Continuously monitors enterprise data to update classifications in real-time, ensuring a consistently accurate categorisation of corporate assets.

“Windows Server 2012 includes notable innovations such as Dynamic Access Control. We’re excited to see companies such as dataglobal, with its dg classification 2.0, build on Windows Server 2012 capabilities,” said Andrew Conway, director, product marketing, Server and Tools Business, Microsoft.

“In reality, many organisations do not have enough insight into their data to effectively manage it from a security, compliance and storage management perspective,” said  Wolfgang Munz, dataglobal CEO.

“Since they have no way of efficiently analysing the data and applying actions based on policy, most organisations simply keep everything-creating key vulnerabilities including unauthorised
access to unencrypted data, high levels of toxic data from a compliance, security, and discovery perspective, and ever rising storage costs. dataglobal”s dg suite and Windows Server 2012 Dynamic Access Control can help to drive an organization to a value-based information management structure, providing a range of important benefits and cost reductions.”

dg Classification 2.0 is due to be released to coincide with the launch of Windows Server 2012, although Microsoft has not announced the expected date.