Exterro: Partners Need to Bridge Gaps in Data Governance

Data governance is an increasingly crucial component of any organization’s compliance and security goals. We spoke with executives at data risk management vendor Exterro to explore how channel partners can enable the next generation of data best practices.

How US federal and state regulations impact the mobile data of businesses of all sizes

Businesses have spent years trying to better understand and manage the data they control, and for many, that was hard enough before the expansion of work-from-anywhere and general dependence on mobile devices added an entirely new source of data to the mix. 

Exterro states that it has observed mobile data being involved in over 75% of e-discovery cases, and US state privacy laws are beginning to regulate more closely how companies manage their mobile data.

“Laws and best practices don’t discriminate between mobile device data and other types, they cover all of the data touching an organization,” said Fahad Diwan, the director of product management and marketing for data privacy, security, and governance. “But, the software needed to best address mobile data is different than what organizations need in software to manage non-mobile data, so it is a slightly different conversation.”

“I was talking with a partner just the other day who told me the amount of data tied to mobile devices is two times the data found in desktop, and it blew my mind a little. It just shows how important mobile data is to the overall governance conversation,” added Bruce Holbert, senior director of channel sales.

Exterro launched its remote mobile discovery solution in March of this year in response to this growing need. The company describes the feature as “industry’s first truly wireless, agentless solution to preview, collect, and review remote mobile device data in a unified platform.”

“Mobile data discovery has become one of the most important and challenging aspects of data collection,” said Ryan O’Leary, the research director for privacy and legal technology at IDC, in a press statement. “Exterro’s mobile data discovery software hopes to solve this challenge with its all-in-one solution for e-discovery and forensic investigations. Unlike traditional tools that require extensive technical expertise, Exterro’s intuitive platform makes mobile data collection accessible to legal and compliance teams, enabling them to efficiently review mobile data alongside other evidence for faster, more effective case resolution.”

Exterro’s platform approach and its channel partners offer a solution to challenges in market

The Exterro Data Risk Management Platform offers a comprehensive suite of solutions that address the full spectrum of compliance requirements. This includes discovery, digital forensics, law enforcement forensics, and components of data privacy and governance such as mapping, retention, and consent management, among others.

While privacy conversations aren’t new, they are becoming increasingly relevant to a wider range of stakeholders, posing both a challenge and an opportunity for partners.

“Every company now wants to somehow leverage AI, and do it across multiple departments,” Diwan said. “And as we know, AI requires your data to be classified and clean and usable, and governance best practices encourage companies to be very careful about what data they feed into AI systems. It’s more important than ever to approach your data in a unified way like we provide.”

“When partners are involved in these discussions, they now need to find ways to bridge the gap between the CISOs and tech executives they have always worked with, and now also legal, HR, and other stakeholders,” said Holbert.

As regulation continues to add more scrutiny to how businesses manage their data, Holbert and Diwan say Exterro’s comprehensive platform approach will be more crucial than ever.

“We are the industry’s most comprehensive data risk platform,” Diwan said. “We provide all the solutions an organization needs under one roof. Organizations maintain far more data than they need, usually, but they still need to carefully discover it all and then determine what action to take, including disposal.”

The company also recently updated its expansive partner network approach to enable resellers and service providers worldwide. The program offers a variety of enablement, sales, and co-marketing resources to those partners as it scales the global adoption of the platform.

“In today’s fragmented data risk landscape, true innovation demands powerful alliances,” stated Exterro Chief Revenue Officer Jim Cox in a press release. “We’re not just launching a partner program—we’re creating a movement that equips solution providers, law firms, service providers, developers, and resellers with unprecedented capabilities to capture market share. ExPN delivers the comprehensive framework, specialized expertise, and strategic advantage partners need to capitalize on the rapidly expanding data risk management marketplace.”

Compliance is a growing concern, especially as the attack surface expands and AI fuels innovation. Read our interview with Schellman CEO Avani Desai to learn about the current compliance landscape.