Data Audit
A Data Audit by Ovation Data returns a structured inventory of your digital files and identifies file-level risk and quality issues. You’ll receive a detailed report and access to your data in Ovation’s Showcase platform, where you can explore the findings.
For a limited time only, we’re offering a free Audit of a data sample for qualifying organizations.
What is a Data Audit?
Most large data stores carry more risk than their owners realize. Aging formats, unreadable files, inconsistent naming conventions, duplicate data, and other quality issues build up over time.
Storage costs grow as duplicate and redundant files accumulate. Search becomes unreliable when metadata is patchy, inconsistent, or missing. By the time a file is needed, finding it, trusting it, and using it may be harder than expected.
A Data Audit by Ovation Data gives you a practical diagnostic of your repository. We run our audit tooling across your data to create a sortable file inventory, classify file types, flag file-level issues, and extract available text and metadata where supported. We return a detailed report and load the same data into our search and discovery platform, Showcase, so you can review the findings in context.
Why Data Audits Matter
Surface critical insights to support both long-term data management and downstream data activities.
The storage cost you cannot see
Duplicates, redundant backups, and orphaned files quietly inflate storage costs. A Data Audit identifies what is using capacity and what should be reviewed for deduplication or disposition under your retention and cleanup rules.
A format risk you cannot ignore
File formats age, and many repositories still contain files that are difficult to open, unsupported, poorly identified, or separated from useful context. A Data Audit surfaces format and access risks while there is still time to act.
Enrich metadata and contextual understanding
Text and metadata containing useful context are often buried within individual file headers, filenames, folder names, and folder structures. A Data Audit by Ovation Data can mine this information to help populate custom metadata fields.
Visibility for compliance and decisions
Regulatory, operational, and commercial questions are easier to answer when you know what is in your dataset. A Data Audit provides a written inventory and summary workbook you can take to your team, leadership, or an external auditor.
Ready to see what's in your data?
For a limited time only, we’re offering a free Audit of a data sample for qualifying organizations. Get a clear picture of your data plus 30 days of access in Showcase.
Limited-Time Data Audit Offer
For a limited period, Ovation Data is offering a free, sample audit of your pre-digitized data, as a special offer for qualifying organizations.
What you provide
A sample of around 5TB (terabytes) of pre-digitized data, in any mix of formats: for example, pdfs, excel spreadsheets, or CSV files. Have a larger or smaller sample? Get in touch anyway as we may be able to accommodate your needs. If your data is sensitive and cannot leave your environment, we can connect to your storage, index the metadata, and disconnect, so the original files never move.
Turnaround
The turnaround is quick, about one week from the time paperwork is signed, and your sample is received. Larger samples take longer, but we will be clear about timing on the introductory call.
What you receive
What happens when you book the free offer?
After a short introductory call and completion of a services agreement, we audit your sample and add it to Showcase. Two weeks later, our team will reach out to review the findings with you, clean up metadata as appropriate, and discuss next steps. From the time we receive your form, we expect the whole process to take roughly 60 days, including your complimentary access to Showcase. After which, the sample data is deleted from our systems. Documentation of destruction is available on request.
How Our Data Audit Works
Customer Data Source
You identify the data you want audited. It can sit on your own servers, in a cloud environment you control, or be sent to Ovation Data.
Secure
Access
Ovation accesses the data under a signed services agreement. For data-sovereignty cases, access is read-only and temporary; for other cases, the data can be stored at Ovation Data.
Ovation
Audit
The audit tooling runs across the data, identifying inventory shape, duplicates, aging formats, file errors, and metadata patterns.
Expert
Review
Findings are checked by Ovation Data experts and prepared for review. The Showcase platform is populated with your data in a password-protected account, so you can explore your data alongside the report.
Showcase Access
You receive secure login details and 30 days of Showcase access. Search, preview, and inspect your data.
Review Findings
Our team walks you through the report, answers questions, and lays out the options for what comes next.
Data Audit FAQs
Must my data leave my environment to be audited?
No. If your data is sensitive and cannot leave your environment, we can connect to your storage, index the data, and disconnect, so the original files never move.
What happens to my data after the Audit?
Your data is used only for the Data Audit and subsequent display in Showcase. It is never retained for benchmarking, training, or any other use. At the end of the project, the data is deleted from Ovation Data’s systems. Documentation of destruction is available on request.
How long does the Data Audit take?
Data samples of 5TB or less are expected to take about one week from the point at which paperwork is signed and your data is in place. Larger samples or Data Audits at scale will take longer, and we will be clear about timing on the introductory call.
Can you work from a file list only?
Yes. We can audit from a metadata manifest (a list of file paths, sizes, timestamps, and extensions) without inspecting file contents. This is a reduced-depth exercise as it can surface duplicates, naming issues, format risk, and inventory shape, but cannot offer insight into file headers or embedded metadata, for example.
Is data on physical media included?
No. The Data Audit covers digital data only. For data on legacy tape, paper, or other physical media, Ovation can digitize a paid piece of work, then audit it and show it in Showcase the same way. Get in touch if that applies.
What size data sample will Ovation audit for free?
5TB is the recommended starting point, although smaller samples work and larger samples may be accepted.
What happens after the Data Audit?
You receive the report and 30 days of Showcase access. Our team will review the findings with you, and you decide what comes next: a Data Audit at scale, a Showcase plan, cleanup and enrichment, a different engagement, or no further action. The Data Audit report is yours either way, regardless of the next steps you decide to take.
Request Your Data Audit
Tell us a little about your data and we will follow up to discuss the best Audit route.