Data Without Discipline: Why Retain by Default is a Dangerous Strategy
Data breaches are now a common news story. Most people know about the financial, operational, and reputational damage they cause. However, class-action lawsuits are making things even more serious. As more people demand compensation for exposed personal data, the cost of a breach now includes legal battles, not just cleanup and public relations.
Many organizations do not realize how keeping too much data increases their risk. If a breach reveals information that should have been deleted years ago, the problem and legal risk grow exponentially. Still, many businesses keep data much longer than rules or policies require.
Why does this problem continue, and how can organizations stop it?
The Habit of Keeping Everything
Many enterprises have slipped into a default posture of “retain by default.”
Some do this out of fear, worrying they might delete something needed for compliance or business reasons later.
Others are optimistic, believing all data is valuable, especially with new AI tools, so they keep everything.
The outcome is the same: huge amounts of unorganized data with no clear owner, purpose, or plan for how it will be managed.
The Cost and Operational Drag of Over‑Retention
Holding onto all data forever is not only risky, but also costly.
- Storage costs keep rising, especially as companies store tens or even hundreds of petabytes of data.
- The use of AI speeds up data growth. Machine logs, IoT devices, and AI workloads all create nonstop streams of unstructured data.
- Managing data is harder with hybrid and multi-cloud setups, especially when tools only work with certain vendors or platforms.
- Duplicate and abandoned data pile up because teams do not have a clear, unified view of what data exists or where it is stored.
Unstructured data now makes up 80 to 90 percent of all company information, but most organizations lack the tools or systems to manage it well.
Compliance and Governance: The Blind Spots That Create Liability
As unstructured data grows, it becomes harder to manage and control.
- Teams often lose track of the data they have.
- Files often stay in active systems long after they are no longer needed.
- Rules for managing data over time are often not followed.
- Regular audits become impossible as the amount of data grows.
A real-world example shows what can happen.
A well-known organization experienced a breach that exposed data that was much older than the required 10-year retention limit. Having this extra data made the breach much worse and led to more serious class-action lawsuits.
The organization started monthly checks and began isolating or archiving old data only after the breach. This reduced the risk, but the change came too late.
A Necessary Shift in Mindset
To avoid these problems, organizations need to rethink how they view data.
- The first step is to make data visible. You cannot manage what you cannot see.
- It is essential to have a single view of all unstructured data, especially when using different vendors and cloud setups.
- Managing data over its lifecycle should be automated, not left to manual cleanup.
- Data that no longer serves a purpose must be archived or deleted, not left to accumulate. Data that is no longer useful should be archived or deleted, not allowed to pile up forever. A sustainable path forward is disciplined, proactive management.
Where Datadobi Fits In
This is where Datadobi’s unstructured data management approach can make a real difference.
Datadobi helps organizations:
- Find and organize unstructured data across all storage platforms, whether on-premises, in the cloud, or in a hybrid setup.
- Spot redundant, outdated, or unnecessary (ROT) data that increases risk and cost.
- Apply retention and lifecycle rules consistently, even when working with many different vendors.
- Move, archive, or delete data in a safe and compliant way to lower risk.
Instead of reacting to breaches or rushing during audits, organizations can keep steady control over their data. This reduces risk, cuts costs, and improves governance.
The Bottom Line
Keeping data longer than allowed is not a small mistake. It directly adds legal, financial, and operational risk. As data continues to grow, successful organizations will treat data management as a key strategy, not just an afterthought.