From creation to disposition: Managing data through its lifecycle

I was recently joined by Taa Grays, President-Elect Designee of the New York State Bar Association, and Kelly McIsaac, Associate Vice President, Data Risk Policies and Standards at TD Bank, for our Education Series webinar From creation to disposition: Managing data through its lifecycle. Kelly and Taa lent their expertise to this critical topic, including advice and forecasting in governance, compliance, and next-gen data management.

Watch the full webinar

From cradle to grave: The data lifecycle in perspective

Understanding how data moves through an organization is fundamental. The term lifecycle in this context truly encompasses the entire cradle-to-grave data journey. While the scope of this journey can vary (What if the data first belonged to someone else? What defines true disposition?), the general definition of data lifecycle can be simplified into four key stages:

1. Generation: This includes both data creation within the organization and data acquisition from external sources—the latter being critical for modern data management.
2. Use: Data is employed in numerous ways through collection, processing, analysis, and more.
3. Storage: Data resides in various formats and locations, demanding careful management.
4. Disposition: The final stage involves secure destruction or deletion when data is no longer needed. Modern organizations have even considered adding data anonymization to this list.