Legislation like the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation is introducing more pain points to big data practitioners. Increasingly, data analytics must meet standards not just for usefulness to the business, but also ethics, according to Bala Kumaresan (pictured), senior vice president and general manager of data security at Informatica LLC.

This demands software capable of putting data and its use into accurate context, Kumaresan said. “Actionability without accuracy is basically disaster,” he told  John Furrier (@furrier) and Peter Burris (@plburris), co-hosts of theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s mobile live streaming studio, during Informatica World in Las Vegas, Nevada. (* Disclosure below.)

Data context can change depending on many factors, including who is querying, when and for what purpose, Kumaresan explained. A software system that understands context can protect data from inappropriate uses.

Cataloging and classifying capabilities like those in Informatica’s metadata-driven, machine learning engine CLAIRE, contextualize data for priority. “For example, an alarm that goes on in a school during school hours versus an alarm that goes on in a junkyard — they’re both alarms,” but in context, their priority differs, he said.

The role of the user is something else that informs context, Kumaresan stated. Access to data should depend on a person’s role, be it information technology, marketing, etc. The third layer of context revolves around security, privacy and lawful use of data, he added.

GDPR now a brand name in big data?

This last feature is an area of special attention in Informatica’s Enterprise Information Catalog, Secure@Source intelligent security software and Axon, its integrated enterprise data governance solution.

Companies do not rightfully own customers’ and partners’ data, and it is a positive sign that conversation is increasing around proper handling of it, according to Kumaresan. “They are in fact obligated; they are in fact supposed to use that with care; they are in fact accountable for that data,” he said.

This is no doubt due in part to looming regulations like GDPR, which Informatica is apparently getting a jump on. “One of the things we are announcing at Informatica World is actually about our GDPR bundle, because GDPR is actually as much about data governance as about privacy, and also it is about policy-driven data protection,” Kumaresan concluded.

Watch the complete video interview below, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s independent editorial coverage of Informatica World 2017. (* Disclosure: TheCUBE is a paid media partner for Informatica World. Neither Informatica Corp. nor other sponsors have editorial influence on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

Photo: SiliconANGLE