IT ’ S CRITICAL THAT ORGANISATIONS ADAPT THEIR PRACTICES TO ENSURE THAT THIS NEW PLETHORA OF DATA DOESN ’ T IMPACT PERFORMANCE , SECURITY OR THE USER EXPERIENCE .

at the pros and cons of the standard options that organisations can implement .

OPTION ONE – keep all web data

Continuing to keep all web data will ensure that users have a rich browsing experience , ensuring their expectations of websites and web apps are met . However , not only will steps have to be taken to secure that data , the administrator will also be faced with a requirement for increased back-end storage .

For instance , in a business of 1,000 users with an average web data size of 250MB per user , an extra 250GB of storage will be required . And if all users log on at 9am , this 250GB needs transferring to the users which places strain on the network .

All of this affects the user in the way of performance . Login times are massively affected ( customers have reported up to 90 % of the time taken to log on is down to web data ), browser launch times increase , as does the rendering of web pages , which , in some extreme cases will time out , impacting productivity .

OPTION TWO – delete the data each time

By deleting all web data after each session , organisations will remove the impact on logon , storage and network while addressing concerns around data security . However , this effectively means that for each logon , the user will be starting from scratch as far as Internet applications are concerned .

Useful browser items such as history and cookies , many of which will be authentication cookies , which are used to recognise users on websites such as AWS and Office365 are not immune and are also lost . So , while the issues of bloat and privacy are removed , problems around user experience and productivity remain .

OPTION THREE – disallow third party cookies

A further option is to utilise the ' disallow third party cookies ' setting that all browsers include . This will stop the majority of the ‘ undesired ’ cookies being stored but might also stop certain website features from operating correctly . As such , by enabling this , all of the issues

( performance , security , user experience ) would be partially , but not fully , addressed .

OPTION FOUR – create whitelists and blacklists

Finally , organisations could choose to whitelist and blacklist certain types of web data . By identifying business applications and websites and ‘ whitelisting ’ them , while blacklisting problem websites and applications , they can ensure that only data that is relevant to business as usual activity is retained . However , much like disallowing third party cookies , this only partially addresses the issues rather than providing a solution to them .

A new approach to web data bloat

It ' s clear that the standard options available all come with a catch – either a rich browsing experience with web bloat and possible privacy issues , or a lean data footprint with quick loading times that ’ s hampered by browsing and compatibility issues . As such , what is needed is a solution that completely manages all aspects of web data , offering organisations the opportunity to strike a balance which best suits their specific requirements .

To achieve this , IT teams need a solution that is able to analyse the data generated by simple web browsing and web-based applications . By being able to see what data is present on PCs and servers , they can begin to understand what category – desirable and undesirable – that web data falls into , while also assessing the savings in disk space and storage that can be realised by addressing the issue .

With this visibility of the web browser data that resides in the network and the issues it is creating , it then becomes possible to remove unnecessary data . This will not only reduce the size of users ’ web browser databases , but will also provide administrators with full control over users ’ browsing data to ensure that only required information is kept .

In our experience , this can reduce the size of WebCache files by 80 – 90 % and the number of cookies in a typical WebCache from typically 5,000 or more , to just a few hundred .

As cloud and web applications become increasingly prevalent in the IT environment , it ' s critical that organisations adapt their practices to ensure that this new plethora of data doesn ' t impact performance , security or the user experience . And this can only be achieved once they have not only the ability to gain full visibility of web data , but also the capability to manage – and delete it – effectively . • www . intelligentcio . com INTELLIGENTCIO

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