Digital Fragility a "ticking time bomb"

Digital fragility has emerged as a risk to digital business that CIOs and CMOs are failing to confront concludes a recent report by Forrester, a leading global research and advisory firm.

According to the report, vital digital information sources and assets are at risk due to link rot, obsolete file formats and media, and vendor abandonment of online services. This can leave firms scrabbling to find or recreate digital assets, opening the door to loss of valuable trademarks, costly failures to meet regulatory crackdowns and poor corporate governance.

Beyond the short-term

The report also urges CIOs and CMOs to look beyond short-term compliance-driven governance and leverage the value of corporate knowledge and digital brand heritage to create competitive advantage. This means investing in the long-term preservation of digital assets to inspire innovation, build brand trust, and create engaging customer and employee experiences.

Enterprise architects too need to actively plan for the retention of corporate memory by building long-term protection and preservation into their overall data governance strategies. This ensures critical information is available when needed for compliance, legal, brand, and knowledge management needs.