Not all data is created equal. Unlike structured data, which resides in well-defined fields and tables, unstructured data lacks clear organization, which affects data quality. It can span multiple data lakes, making it difficult to analyze, interpret, and extract insights. Unstructured data already accounts for as much as 90% of enterprise information, and volumes are growing exponentially, particularly in the context of AI-driven workloads. At the same time, much of this enterprise data typically remains unused, accompanied by redundant storage and process inefficiencies that drain IT budgets.
To address the associated storage capacity and data retention requirements, many organizations have defaulted to simply adding more storage, perpetuating a vicious technology investment cycle that only exacerbates the problem. In effect, the cost of doing nothing to address the underlying unstructured data challenges is fast becoming financially unsustainable, and something has to give.
A Shift in Mindset
Clearly, these issues aren’t going away on their own or anytime soon. IDC, for example, projects that unstructured data volumes will grow from 5.5 zettabytes last year to 10.5 zettabytes by 2028. Within this expanding volume, large proportions of data are rarely accessed or analyzed: An industry survey found that 60% of organizations say half or more of their data is “dark,” or in other words, stored at significant cost, but delivering little or no value.
So, what needs to change? Firstly, the answer requires a shift in mindset: Unstructured data should no longer be seen purely as a storage problem, but as a financial strategy issue. Instead of continually adding capacity, organizations need to treat data as a managed asset with a defined lifecycle. This involves identifying which datasets, or data estates, are genuinely valuable to the business, ensuring they are readily available on high-performance storage, moving less critical data and cold data, to lower-cost platforms, and retiring information that no longer serves operational or regulatory compliance needs.
This change in perspective transforms the role of unstructured data management from firefighting into proactive financial optimization. It also creates a transformative opportunity to redirect budgets away from redundant capacity and towards innovation, so data management is not just an operational necessity, but a catalyst for cost efficiency and growth.
From Strategy to Action
The next step is to turn strategy into action — a process that should begin with visibility. CIOs need to establish a clear, enterprise-wide view of unstructured data, including what exists, where it resides, who owns it, and how it is being utilized. Without this insight and foundation, any attempt to control cost or reduce risk will be incomplete and, in all likelihood, ineffective.
The next step is governance. Classifying data according to priorities such as business value, regulatory requirements, and risk profile, among others, ensures that the right policies can be applied. On top of this, regular audits and data lifecycle rules help to maintain this structure over time while simultaneously reducing the likelihood of redundant or non-compliant data creeping back into the picture.
In addition, information that no longer requires immediate access should be moved to lower-cost storage, archived intelligently, or deleted when retention periods expire. This kind of data mobility ensures that expensive, high-performance capacity is reserved for the datasets that deliver the greatest value. Many organizations find that vendor-neutral platforms added a lot of value to this process, not least because they provide the flexibility to manage data across heterogeneous environments without storage technology lock-in.
Don’t forget, this isn’t just about cost-efficiency, important as it is. These practices also have a direct and lasting impact on the success of advanced technology investments, ensuring that analytics and AI initiatives, which are currently of strategic importance across the board, are supported by access to accurate, relevant, and high-quality data.
Getting AI Right: The Devil’s in the Data
Looking more closely at AI in particular, it’s widely understood that the effectiveness and performance of advanced AI projects depend on the quality of the underlying data. GenAI models struggle or even fail to deliver entirely when trained on poorly managed, unstructured datasets. The classic computing principle of “garbage in, garbage out” applies, where unreliable or inconsistent data produces skewed outputs, undermining confidence in results.
Visibility and governance play an essential role here because, by establishing enterprise-wide oversight of unstructured data and applying clear lifecycle rules, organizations can provide their data scientists with the high-quality information needed to train models effectively. Vendor-agnostic management platforms further support this by integrating data across heterogeneous environments, ensuring that the right inputs can be assembled without unnecessary complexity or lock-in.
This makes unstructured data management not just an IT housekeeping issue, but a prerequisite for value creation. Enterprises need to curate, classify, and prepare their datasets before introducing them into AI workflows. Doing so reduces bias, ensures compliance, and improves the likelihood that what can be major AI investments will deliver on their objectives.
Problems such as these are becoming increasingly common, with many organizations pursuing AI initiatives now encountering significant data management challenges, ranging from weak governance processes to difficulties integrating datasets and a shortage of reliable training data.
These issues have been shown to derail AI projects even when investment levels are high, underlining that effective unstructured data management is a prerequisite for success. Indeed, Gartner predicts that through 2026, “organizations will abandon 60% of AI projects unsupported by AI-ready data.” That’s an alarming failure rate, and if strategies aren’t revised and improved, the cost of doing nothing will continue to bite.
