The New Era of Accountability | Harmony House Insights

For years, businesses have treated data growth like a badge of honour. "More storage, more insights, more AI, more everything." But reality is setting in. This isn’t sustainable.

AI is making bad decisions because it's being trained on unstructured junk.
Regulators are demanding businesses actually know what data they have.
Storage costs are spiraling, paying millions to keep ROT data.
ESG commitments are contradicted by the energy consumption of useless data.

This is the reckoning. The decade of unstructured data chaos is over. The question is: are you ready, or will you be forced to react when it’s too late?

How We Got Here: The Era of Data Hoarding

The past decade was about data growth at all costs.

"Storage is cheap!" ... Until it wasn’t.
"Keep everything just in case!" ... Until regulators asked why.
"AI will figure it out!" ... Until businesses realised AI trained on junk produces nonsense.

For years, organisations built massive data lakes, but never structured them properly. Now, regulators, AI models, CFOs, and ESG targets are all demanding the same thing: Control.

The Core Pillars of the Data Reckoning

1. The Cost Nightmare

The "storage is cheap" myth is finally collapsing. Storing 50PB costs £3M–£5M per year. Since 30% is ROT, that's £1M wasted annually on garbage.

If data was a physical warehouse, no CFO would approve this spending. But in digital? Nobody questioned it. Until now.

2. The Compliance Crunch

GDPR is turning 7. NIS2 & DORA are in force. The AI Act is law. The "we don't know what we have" excuse is legally dead.

Regulators aren't coming; they are already here. Businesses without governance will be forced into panic mode.

3. The AI Chaos

Bad Data In = Bad Decisions Out. AI models are hallucinating because they're trained on the 30% ROT and 50% Dark Data in your estate.

If you can't trust your data, you can't trust your AI. Governance is now a competitive advantage.

4. The ESG Reality Check

Data storage is not "green". Offsetting emissions doesn't erase them. Keeping ROT data is environmentally irresponsible.

The best way to reduce your digital carbon footprint is to stop storing useless data.

The Fix: How Businesses Can Prepare

The reckoning isn’t coming, it’s already here. The businesses that act now will save millions, reduce risk, and unlock AI potential. The ones that don't will be playing catch-up in crisis mode.

What Needs to Happen Next

Audit your data estate. What’s ROT? What’s Dark Data? If you don’t know, you’re behind.
Start classifying and deleting. Data governance isn’t "nice to have"—it’s survival.
Build a strategy for AI-ready data. You can’t train AI on garbage.
Stop treating compliance as an afterthought. NIS2, DORA, and the AI Act are live.

Final Thought

This isn’t just an IT issue anymore... it’s a business-wide reckoning. If you’re still sitting on a vast, ungoverned, ROT-filled data estate, 2025 is the year it catches up with you.

If you’d rather be in control before the fines, AI failures, or financial pressures force your hand, check out Lightning IQ—because the businesses that fix this now will dominate the next decade.

Ready to Reckon with your Data?

Start by finding out how much ROT is costing you today.

Calculate Your ROT Savings

Nick Pollard is Managing Director (EMEA) for Harmony House Technology. He is a seasoned leader with more than 20 years of experience working in real-time investigation, legal and compliance workflows across highly regulated environments.

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