The best way to understand unstructured data is to classify it in some way. Classification of data can be automatic at a high level but, for more granular classification there is a need to engage with the business to understand the requirements of the organisation. A combination of good technical capability allied to the right tools together with good business analysis will lead to successful classification projects.
Most unstructured data tools allow you to build a “category” of information that contains some metadata elements and some elements of content. You can limit the category to certain people/emails sets/document types. Rules can then be set up to act on categories of data allowing automatic updating of categories, and application of appropriate policies. Alerts are immediately flagged-up, so the data can be moved, deleted, preserved, or otherwise treated as necessary
This FAQ is in these categories: Unstructured Data