Bundled security and governance solutions help organizations quickly get started to meet GDPR deadline

Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) Software today announced the availability of a GDPR Starter Kit, which helps organizations take a critical first step in preparing for the European Union’s looming General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). This bundled set of software solutions assists organizations to automatically identify, classify, and take action to secure information that falls under this regulation.

GDPR presents a unique challenge to organizations around the globe, since it applies to any entity that collects or processes EU citizen data, and imposes harsh penalties for those that do not comply by May 2018. According to a recent PwC Pulse Survey of C-suite executives from large multinational corporations, 54 percent of respondents reported that GDPR readiness is the highest priority on their data-privacy and security agenda, and 77 percent of respondents plan to spend $1 million or more on GDPR compliance.¹

“Getting started may be the greatest challenge for many organizations, as data volumes often number in the billions of objects, timeframes are constrained, and determining what falls within these regulations can be cumbersome and complex,” said Joe Garber, vice president marketing, Information Management & Governance, HPE Software. “The GDPR Starter Kit provides customers with an easily integrated solution set for assessing data, allowing them to take the first step in addressing data and risk management outlined in the regulation.”

PwC highlighted Personal Data Assessment as a key stage in compliance in a recent white paper, “Technology’s Role in Data Protection – the Missing Link in GDPR Transformation.” The GDPR Starter Kit follows HPE’s earlier launch of a comprehensive GDPR solution portfolio, and aims to provide organizations with streamlined next steps on their paths to compliance.

“The effective use of technology is critical for organizations to monitor what sensitive EU citizen data they hold, and to apply and enforce policies to protect this information,” said Stewart Room, global data protection legal services leader at PwC. “With the upcoming EU General Data Protection Regulation set to deliver a fundamental change in how personal data is handled, organizations must ensure they have the right technology and controls in place to meet the new requirements. The natural first step for many is to use analytics tools to understand what personal data is held, where it’s being stored, and how to classify it.”

The GDPR Starter kit combines world-class software, including HPE ControlPoint, HPE Structured Data Manager, HPE Content Manager and HPE SecureData in bundled solutions to help customers conduct a Personal Data Assessment and optionally encrypt data that is subject to these regulations. This unique combination of classification, governance, and data security products delivers a number of important benefits:

• Automate assessment of structured and unstructured data, which alleviates a traditionally manual, error-prone process.
• Quickly and cost effectively enable GDPR-responsive data to be encrypted in an automated fashion to mitigate security breaches.
• Take a critical step toward lifecycle and retention management to enable compliance with additional GDPR articles and corporate governance requirements.