Queensland Museum

Data discovery to improve information visibility and access

For a museum, data privacy has many different dimensions. Of course, its financial and legal records need to meet the same regulatory compliance as in other organizations. But it also manages data of huge historic value, and providing curated access to this is vitally important, as Kerry Cody, head of digital and information services for Queensland Museum, explains: “Our team’s role is to make information more visible and accessible. Much of our historic collection data has been digitized, and instead of big archiving rooms, we now have a plethora of virtual ‘filing cabinets’ containing millions of records. With repositories such as Exchange, SharePoint, and OneDrive, as well as external drives and USBs, data visibility is not an easy feat.”

She continues: “Some of our records have been classified as sensitive as they relate to objects from Australia’s First Nations communities, this data may have access restrictions placed onto it by those identified communities. The Queensland Museum must be extremely careful how we manage sensitive data, for example storing on a network drive with no access controls. But of course, we don’t know what we don’t know. Although we have clear information governance processes, these rely on users being diligent about how they capture and store their information. Manual processes can be fallible and, as we planned to upgrade our existing electronic document and records management system (EDRMS) based on OpenText Content Manager, we decided to take the opportunity to conduct a full data discovery and information governance optimization.”

At the same time, Microsoft Teams was introduced to provide an effective collaboration platform. While initially just using Teams for its video conferencing and chat capabilities, the Museum will ultimately create, store and share information to support project teams. However, Kerry wanted to ensure that the data that enters Teams, or any other repository, has been cleaned up first. Unstructured, and generally unmanaged, data is more vulnerable because often its value to the organization has not been adequately assessed. Having made an initial attempt to manually inventory its 20 terabytes of data, the Queensland Museum team realized there had to be a better way.

OpenText Fusion has taken us on an incredible journey with surprises at every turn. We have found real treasures among our millions of files, as well as ways to drastically reduce our storage costs and safeguard the sensitive data that is our museum’s legacy.

OpenText Fusion realizes substantial storage cost savings

Kerry consulted with Queensland-based trusted partner WyldLynx on how to upgrade OpenText Content Manager, introduce automated information workflows to support enhanced information governance, and integrate OpenText Content Manager with Teams. WyldLynx recommended OpenText Voltage Fusion (formerly File Analysis Suite) by OpenText. OpenText Fusion supports data preservation, disposition, and records management capabilities for more effective data lifecycle management while ensuring full compliance with data privacy regulations. It can quickly identify redundant, obsolete, and trivial data, helping organizations reduce clutter and costs associated with managing sensitive data.

WyldLynx suggested a OpenText Fusion proof-of-value project involving 500GB of data over a period of 30 days. In close co-operation with WyldLynx experts, nearly 400,000 files were scanned against pre-defined criteria and keywords. In a large data landscape, it is very easy for data to be duplicated as files are often stored across several different repositories due to various applications performing different functions. Still, the team was surprised to discover that 11 percent of the scanned files were duplicates. “So much duplication is clearly a waste of our storage resources,” comments Kerry. “Financially, OpenText Fusion sold itself as we anticipate over US$60,000 annual storage saving. While this is great, there is an additional hidden cost associated with the potential reputational damage if a data breach occurs. This is where we feel OpenText Fusion really comes into its own.”

Financially, OpenText Fusion sold itself as we anticipate over US$60,000 annual storage saving. While this is great, there is an additional hidden cost associated with the potential reputational damage if a data breach occurs. This is where we feel OpenText Fusion really comes into its own.

Uncovered treasures, improved data lifecycle management, and secure sensitive data

A third of files had passed its retention date and could be disposed of in accordance with data regulations. This is important to save on storage, but also to mitigate risk by not retaining sensitive information for longer than is required. “OpenText Fusion is incredibly user-friendly and gave us visual heatmaps to easily assess our sensitive data risk,” says Kerry. “With some tool support from WyldLynx, OpenText Fusion now automatically moves qualifying files from their source location into OpenText Content Manager, masking sensitive information in the process.”

The proof of value also highlighted many files that the team were unaware of, often very valuable to the Museum. With such a long history, it is easy to lose track of files when long-serving researchers leave their post, for instance. Video footage that might have been taken on an important fieldtrip can be misfiled somewhere. Or an analog photo of a rare parrot has been digitized but not tagged correctly. Using artificial intelligence, OpenText Fusion finds file pathways that might otherwise not have been discovered. The Museum found an old register in this way. It contained valuable information about the Museum’s collections and is now considered a great asset and categorized as such.

Kerry concludes: “OpenText Fusion has taken us on an incredible journey with surprises at every turn. We have found real treasures among our millions of files, as well as ways to drastically reduce our storage costs and safeguard the sensitive data that is our museum’s legacy. Through OpenText Fusion and OpenText Content Manager, guided by WyldLynx expertise, we have optimized and streamlined our information governance. Our staff now has all the collection information they need at their fingertips. This helps them serve our public better and continue to tell the changing story of Queensland.”