Getting a handle on your company’s unstructured data can seem like a big challenge. But you’ll need to make it happen if you want to reach SOC 2 compliance. After all, a SOC 2 attestation indicates that a company has comprehensive information security policies that manage and protect customer data — and that includes unstructured data! 

What is SOC 2 certification, and why is it important?

SOC 2 is a lot like the Common App in college admissions: you can complete it once and then utilize it in many places, sometimes doing a little supplemental work for specific enterprises.

In as little as three to four years into its life as the gold standard, about 20,000+ companies are achieving SOC 2 alone every year. Since a SOC 2 certification means that businesses can sell into large companies much earlier, it unlocks huge revenue potential for young companies. 

SOC 2, the humble security compliance standard, is partially responsible for sky-high early-stage valuations. In a competitive environment, businesses can’t afford not to be SOC 2 compliant. If your competitor gets its SOC 2 and you don’t, they have free reign to scoop up large customers while you’re stuck down-market.

What is unstructured data?

Unstructured data, which could be anything — sensor data, media, imaging, text data, audio, and more — means that datasets (typical large collections of files) aren’t stored in a structured database format. 

In the context of SOC 2 compliance, unstructured data simply means that a client’s datasets (typically large collections of files) aren’t stored in a structured database format and don’t contain a predefined data model.

Unstructured data’s impact on SOC 2 compliance

Unstructured data is the most abundant type of business data and is growing due to increased use of digital applications and services. In fact, CIO estimates that 80–90% of company data is unstructured and this percentage is growing at an alarming rate.

As the problem of unstructured data continues to expand, CIOs are searching for data intelligence and automation services that will not only help them structure their data but also shorten the window of time to achieve security compliance or certification.

Why? Because information security is a concern for companies of all sizes, including those that outsource key business to third-party SaaS or cloud computing providers. Neglecting or mishandling data can leave organizations vulnerable to security attacks.

A SOC 2 report ensures that your service providers are securely managing your data to defend the security and privacy of both your organization and its clients. SOC 2 compliance is a minimum requirement when considering a SaaS provider, and maintaining that compliance can be multi-staged, costly, and require hours of pre-defined preparation of unstructured data. 

Reduce risk and grow revenue with security compliance software

Strike Graph’s compliance platform reduces the burden of security compliance, increasing sales opportunities with service providers and building trust with enterprise prospects and clients.

Our security compliance platform does more than just simplify the initial acquisition of security attestations and certifications such as SOC 2 Type I/II or ISO 27001. It supports your ongoing compliance efforts and makes it easy to branch out to other security frameworks. As your security needs grow, Strike Graph grows with them. 

Accelerate your compliance programs with data intelligence 

Solutions like The Aparavi Platform have been designed from the ground up to solve large enterprise’s unstructured data preparation pain points. The Platform has the ability to discover and classify petabytes of unstructured data, unlocking the value of large data sets that CIOs and IT Directors struggle to manage.

Aparavi helps organizations demonstrate compliance and data governance by securely indexing data and providing a presentation layer of company personal information, healthcare, and US-state-specific privacy laws, along with over 140 total pre-defined classification policies. Additionally, companies can relax and let automation refresh their retention policies, reduce risks by planning for their potential, and assist in exposing sensitive data before a security breach occurs.

The power of combining data intelligence and security compliance platforms

Combined, Strike Graph's security compliance software and the Aparavi data intelligence platform ensure that companies can reduce the time and cost of becoming compliance certified by a minimum of 33%.

Whether you need a data intelligence solution for your unstructured data or require an ISO 27001- or SOC 2-compliant cybersecurity program, Aparavi and Strike Graph can address these services and get you there faster.

Together, we can help your business overcome unstructured data obstacles, expose only relevant client data intelligently and accurately, solve security and compliance challenges, enable an AI-backed cybersecurity program in one-third of the time of most providers, and promote certified compliance for client peace of mind.