• The Four Hundred
  • Subscribe
  • Media Kit
  • Contributors
  • About Us
  • Contact
Menu
  • The Four Hundred
  • Subscribe
  • Media Kit
  • Contributors
  • About Us
  • Contact
  • GDPR Compliance On IBM i A Work In Progress, Survey Finds

    August 20, 2018 Alex Woodie

    About 50 percent of IBM i shops say they’re compliant with the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), according to a recent survey by SoftLanding Systems. However, about a quarter of survey respondents say they have a way to go before they’re confident in their GDPR preparedness, the IBM i vendor says.

    GDPR, which went into effect on May 25, made big changes to laws governing how companies and other organizations are allowed to collect, process, and store data about European Union citizens. While not every American firm is required to adhere to GDPR, those that do business with EU citizens must comply with the law or face fines that potentially reach 4 percent of the company’s annual revenue per incident.

    Courtesy: SoftLanding Systems

    To gauge how far along IBM i shops are with their GDPR remediation efforts, SoftLanding Systems asked 46 IBM i professionals a series of GDPR-related questions during surveys conducted at two recent IBM i conferences, including COMMON‘s POWERUp18 in May and i-UG‘s International i-Power 2018 this June. While the sample size may leave something to be desired for those who desire statistical purity, the results, which SoftLanding published earlier this month, give some indication of the general direction that things are going with regards to GDPR compliance.

    In general, the SoftLanding survey results indicate what we would expect to see at this time – that GDPR remediation efforts are a mixed bag during the earliest stage of GDPR adoption.

    Here are the high-level findings from the report:

    • Only 2 percent of survey respondents say they are “completely confident” in GDPR remediation efforts.
    • 26 percent say they’re not confident in their company’s GDPR compliance.
    • 17 percent say they’re not affected by GDPR.
    • 7 percent say they don’t know how compliant they are.

    The elevated level of uncertainty around GDPR should shock nobody, SoftLanding Operations Manager Jim Fisher says. “While the GDPR officially came into effect at the end of May, it’s no surprise that some enterprises are still unsure about compliance,” Fisher states in a press release. “Achieving GDPR compliance can be onerous and will initially require continuous reviewing and testing of processes around the transparency and privacy of personal data.”

    The GDPR is a complex beast that completely changes the relationship that companies have with data. The changes arguably are the most drastic for companies in the United States, where an “anything goes” attitude has given the big Web giants a blank check to do just about whatever they want with data.

    It can be a very challenging endeavor to get a handle on the GDPR and complying with the various new legal rights that it gives EU citizens, including the right to be informed, the right of data access, the right to rectification, and the right to erasure, among various other new GDPR-granted data rights.

    Courtesy: SoftLanding Systems

    In its survey, SoftLanding sought clarity on which aspects of GDPR were causing IBM i shops the most grief. The biggest GDPR-induced pain point is understanding where personal data resides in the business, with 50 percent of respondents saying that’s a problem.

    While it would be relatively easy to build controls for data stored in Db2 for i, the reality is that just a small portion of the personal data that falls under GDPR jurisdiction is stored in the relational database, Fisher says.

    “The majority [of data] is spread around the organization in a wide range of unstructured formats – such as documents, voice recordings, chat logs, social media, texts, and emails,” he says. “These are stored in diverse locations, controlled by separate business departments and therefore are very difficult to pull together.”

    Another 41 percent of SoftLanding survey respondents cited the difficult of having systems in place to “flag up” potential data breaches as a big challenge, followed by 35 percent saying the GDPR’s right to erasure was the biggest problem. Ensuring good data security, gaining the needed “consents” to store personal data, and having a process in place to respond to GDPR-related requests also got votes in the survey.

    Because most of GDPR revolves around personal data, getting a handle on the systems that store that personal data is job number one. Fisher recommends that having an enterprise content management (ECM) strategy could be a boon for IBM i shops struggling with GDPR compliance.

    “The key advantage I see is that ECM becomes a strategic enabler, not only in satisfying compliance needs, but also in providing a non-intrusive digital transformation framework for the IBM i platform,” Fisher states.

    RELATED STORIES

    GDPR and IBM i: The Final Countdown

    GDPR Data Discovery On Tap from Raz-Lee

    GDPR Deadline Looms for IBM i Shops

    Share this:

    • Reddit
    • Facebook
    • LinkedIn
    • Twitter
    • Email

    Tags: Tags: GDPR, General Data Protection Regulation, IBM i

    Sponsored by
    PERFSCAN

    Revolutionary Performance Management Software

    At Greymine, we recognize there is a void in the IT world for a dedicated performance management company and also for a performance management tool that’s modern, easy to use, and doesn’t cost an arm and a leg. That’s why we created PERFSCAN.

    PERFSCAN is designed to make your job easier. With revolutionary technology, an easy-to-read report and graphics engine, and real time monitoring, tasks that used to take days can now take minutes. This means you will know your system better and will be able to provide better service to your customers.

    OUR FEATURES

    PERFSCAN is full of robust features that don’t require you to take a three-day class in order to use the product effectively.

    Customizable Performance Reporting

    Whether you are troubleshooting a major system problem or simply creating a monthly report, PERFSCAN lets you select any combination of desired performance metrics (CPU, Disk, and Memory).

    User Defined Performance Guidelines

    No matter if you are a managed service provider managing complex systems in the cloud or a customer analyzing your on-premises solution, PERFSCAN gives you the flexibility to define all mission critical guidelines how they need to be.

    Understanding The Impact Of Change

    Tired of all the finger pointing when performance is suffering? PERFSCAN’s innovative What’s Changed and Period vs. Period analysis creates a culture of proof by correlating known environmental changes with system performance metrics.

    Comprehensive Executive Summary

    Creating performance graphs is easy. Understanding what they mean is another thing. With one mouse click, PERFSCAN includes an easy-to-understand executive summary for each core metric analyzed.

    Combined Real-Time Monitor And Performance Analysis Tool

    With PERFSCAN’s combined built in enterprise real-time monitor and historical performance analysis capability, you will always know how your mission-critical systems are performing.

    Cloud Performance Reporting Is Easy

    Managing performance for production systems in the cloud can be a black hole to many system administrators. The good news is PERFSCAN analyzes all core metrics regardless of the location. That’s why MSPs and customers love PERFSCAN.

    Detailed Job Analysis

    PERFSCAN shows detailed top job analysis for any desired period. All metrics are displayed in two ways: Traditional Report and Percentage Breakdown Pie Chart. This toggle capability instantly shows the jobs using the most system resources.

    Save Report Capability

    Your boss lost the report you gave to him on Friday. Now what do you do? With PERFSCAN’s save report capability, any report can be retrieved in a matter of seconds.

    Professional PDF Reporting With Branding

    Creating professional looking reports for your customers has never been easier with PERFSCAN. Branding for our partners and service provider customers is easy with PERFSCAN.

    Check it out at perfscan.com

    Share this:

    • Reddit
    • Facebook
    • LinkedIn
    • Twitter
    • Email

    Address Those Fears And Move Your IBM i Workloads To The Cloud Guru: Make It Easy On Someone Else

    Leave a Reply Cancel reply

TFH Volume: 28 Issue: 54

This Issue Sponsored By

  • ProData Computer Services
  • T.L. Ashford
  • RPG & DB2 Summit
  • ML Software
  • WorksRight Software

Table of Contents

  • Drilling Down Into The Power E980
  • In Support Of IBM i Technical Competence
  • Guru: Make It Easy On Someone Else
  • GDPR Compliance On IBM i A Work In Progress, Survey Finds
  • Address Those Fears And Move Your IBM i Workloads To The Cloud

Content archive

  • The Four Hundred
  • Four Hundred Stuff
  • Four Hundred Guru

Recent Posts

  • Fortra Issues 20th State of IBM i Security Report
  • FNTS Launches Managed Services for Power Servers in IBM Cloud
  • Total LTO Shipped Capacity Up Slightly in 2022
  • Four Hundred Monitor, May 24
  • Update On Critical Security Vulnerability In PowerVM
  • Critical Security Vulnerability In PowerVM Hypervisor
  • IBM Power: Hosted On-Premises Or In The Cloud?
  • Guru: Watch Out For This Pitfall When Working With Integer Columns
  • As I See It: Bob-the-Bot
  • IBM i PTF Guide, Volume 25, Number 21

Subscribe

To get news from IT Jungle sent to your inbox every week, subscribe to our newsletter.

Pages

  • About Us
  • Contact
  • Contributors
  • Four Hundred Monitor
  • IBM i PTF Guide
  • Media Kit
  • Subscribe

Search

Copyright © 2023 IT Jungle