Guidance Software
Consider for a moment all the locations you store electronic information in your personal life. Your mind likely jumps to your computer's hard drive. This hard drive can be further broken down into dozens of separate storage areas, called directories and subdirectories. Now consider other storage devices where you keep your data. Perhaps you have a second computer or a laptop? Maybe you have a smartphone, an iPod or a tablet computer? What about a backup hard drive or backup CDs and DVDs? By considering all the locations you store personal data, you can begin to get a sense of just how dispersed electronic information can be.
A thorough knowledge of your corporate IT infrastructure is a key component to a
repeatable and defensible e-discovery process. By knowing what storage devices exist and what type of information is stored where, you can increase the effectiveness and efficiency of your e-discovery process. It is also a requirement under Rule 26 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, which states that litigating parties are to disclose either a copy or a "description by category and location" of responsive electronically stored information.
A data map is a record that details this information.
The data map is an integral part of any litigation-readiness plan. It serves to identify all the locations within the corporation where data may be stored. Further information, such as details about what information is stored where, should also be incorporated into the data map. For example, if data related to your company's accounting practices is located on a specific server, that should be noted within the data map. In-house counsel can reference this map when a matter arises to target collection.
But creating a data map on your own is no easy task. In fact, mapping your personal data is a breeze compared to mapping data on an enterprise-wide level. For one, a company is likely to have tremendously more storage devices. Not only do you have to think about computers, laptops and smart phones, but you also should consider servers, flash drives, legacy systems and a variety of backup devices. In addition, a company's IT infrastructure is often in a state of flux. Users create, delete and move information regularly, while IT personnel may add or alter storage devices.
In order to effectively map your enterprise's data, you will need to invest in an
e-discovery solution. However, not all e-discovery solutions are equipped with the functionality to facilitate data mapping. You need to look for a solution that has pre-collection analytical capabilities that are powerful enough to enable counsel and IT to collaborate and get critical insight into the company's diverse data stores early in the e-discovery process.
Pre-collection analytics also remains a robust and effective tool even as the IT infrastructure evolves over time.
In addition to data mapping, another major concern among legal departments is the issue of data destruction. Much has been discussed about data preservation, but failing to purge unnecessary data presents significant costs and risks as well. But we'll save that for the next post.
Click here to learn about
EnCase eDiscovery's
pre-collection analytics capabilities.
Guidance Software’s Professional Services team also offers
data mapping services.
Russ Gould is director of product marketing at Guidance Software.
