{"id":74,"date":"2026-02-12T19:18:52","date_gmt":"2026-02-12T19:18:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/donmaruta.ddns.net\/wordpress\/?p=74"},"modified":"2026-02-12T19:18:52","modified_gmt":"2026-02-12T19:18:52","slug":"confessions-of-a-data-hoarder-why-good-data-management-still-matters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/donmaruta.ddns.net\/wordpress\/?p=74","title":{"rendered":"Confessions of a Data Hoarder: Why Good Data Management Still Matters"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Data management system, cloud technology, Internet and business concept.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

My name is Donald, and I have a confession to make.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Until yesterday, the data on my home external storage was in a sorry state. Duplicate files, random folders with even more random names\u2026 it was chaos. I know some of you are now probably rushing to the bathroom to vomit at my poor data management skills \u2013 and for that, I sincerely apologise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, is good data management still important in an age of powerful indexing and search tools?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I once read an article suggesting that emails should only be sorted into three simple categories \u2013 To Do, Current, and Done \u2013 with no further refinement. The idea was that time spent over-organising could be saved by relying on the email client\u2019s search function. To be honest, that does work in some cases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But in others \u2013 especially legal or business-critical scenarios \u2013 poor organisation can be disastrous. For eample, the case of Zubulake v. UBS Warburg, a landmark sex discrimination lawsuit. UBS couldn\u2019t locate key emails during the trial, which contributed to them losing the case. The result? Sanctions, legal fees, and a very expensive lesson in the importance of data management.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In my experience, well-organised data often follows a hierarchical folder structure \u2013 grouping related files together, making them easier to locate and manage. This benefits both human users and indexing systems. Searching becomes faster, errors are reduced, and data integrity is easier to maintain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the other hand, when similar data is scattered haphazardly across random folders, systems, and even storage types \u2013 Cat5 cables here, USB drives there, Wi-Fi transfers elsewhere \u2013 it can lead to critical issues. Old or incorrect data might be used in analysis. Search indexing slows down. Money and time is wasted<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So yes, modern computers are good at finding things \u2013 but ultimately, good data management is about helping people. A clear, consistent folder structure allows users to explore, locate, and make sense of their data more intuitively. This allows search tools to become even more powerful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My name is Donald, and I have a confession to make. Until yesterday, the data on my home external storage was in a sorry state. Duplicate files, random folders with even more random names\u2026 it was chaos. I know some of you are now probably rushing to the bathroom to vomit at my poor data … Continue reading Confessions of a Data Hoarder: Why Good Data Management Still Matters<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-74","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorised"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/donmaruta.ddns.net\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/donmaruta.ddns.net\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/donmaruta.ddns.net\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/donmaruta.ddns.net\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/donmaruta.ddns.net\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=74"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/donmaruta.ddns.net\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":76,"href":"https:\/\/donmaruta.ddns.net\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74\/revisions\/76"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/donmaruta.ddns.net\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=74"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/donmaruta.ddns.net\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=74"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/donmaruta.ddns.net\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=74"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}