is still largely unrecognized, even as the value of other intangibles, such as copyrights, trademarks and
patents, is measured and reported.”^1
Monetizing information is part of the larger trend toward “infonomics,” a term coined by Gartner to
describe the discipline of attributing economic significance to information, despite the limitations of current
accounting standards.^1 According to Gartner, Infonomics also identifies “the tangible and intangible costs
of managing, storing, analyzing and protecting data.”^2
Businesses that measure the value of their data can make more intelligent investments in data-related
initiatives. By monetizing data, organizations can create supplementary revenue streams, introduce a
new line of business, gain efficiencies in daily business practices and more.
An offensive data protection strategy that proactively extracts value from protected data puts IT in a new
advisory position with executive leadership. The conversations shift dramatically. Instead of simply, “We
have a lot of sensitive data, and we need to protect it,” IT can go to the business leaders and say, “Hey
we have about a billion dollars worth of data, and we should be leveraging that if we aren’t already doing
so.”
We can’t do it alone
Extracting value is not something humans can do on their own with a high degree of accuracy, and when
it comes to data security, accuracy is king, regardless of whether you’re taking a defensive or an offensive
approach. If you’re going to provide a deep level of context around your data to secure it properly or to
help determine its value, you’ve got to be accurate.
By training and retraining machine learning algorithms to recognize custom data categories, the accuracy
and depth of context around information expands exponentially. Over time, users will become
accustomed to tagging data with ever more specific details to explain its context, which will only increase
its value further. It’s the perfect example of humans and technologies working intelligently together.
Not only can your information handling behaviors become more specific to your business, protecting your
data at the appropriate levels and meeting security compliance requirements, but you can begin to
understand data as a real business asset with profound potential to take your business to the next level
of efficiency and success.
1 Laney, Douglas; Duncan, Alan D.; Clougherty Jones, Lydia; and Rollings, Mike. “Applied Infonomics:
Seven Steps to Monetize Available Information Assets,” Gartner Inc., November 2018.
2 Lowans, Brian; Hunter, Richard; and Laney, Douglas. “Develop a Financial Risk Assessment for Data
Using Infonomics,” Gartner Inc., January 2019.