Taming the deluge: Managing unstructured data for smarter government

Unstructured data is everywhere, and it’s growing faster than ever. From scanned PDFs and emails to video files, call transcripts, reports and meeting minutes, government agencies are sitting on digital mountains of information.

Unfortunately, most of that data remains disconnected, unlabeled and underutilized.

This creates more than just storage headaches. It slows down mission-critical work, increases compliance risks, and blocks progress on major initiatives like digital transformation and AI readiness.

The bottom line? Agencies can’t afford to ignore unstructured data anymore.

What is unstructured data, really?

Let’s be clear: this isn’t just about Word docs and PDFs. Unstructured data includes:

• Emails and chat transcripts
• Video and audio recordings
• Social media posts and web content
• Scanned forms, reports and handwritten notes
• Images, satellite data and surveillance files
• Slide decks, spreadsheets and even code comments

Unlike structured data (which lives in rows and columns in a database), unstructured data doesn’t follow a consistent format. That’s what makes it so hard to manage, and so rich in insights.

Because locked inside these documents are the building blocks of informed policy, effective service delivery and trustworthy AI.

But you can’t unlock what you can’t find, trust or govern.

Ready to start managing your unstructured data? Learn more about how Collibra Public Sector helps U.S. federal agencies.

The federal data paradox

Agencies have never had more data. Or more difficulty making sense of it.

Each program, department and jurisdiction collects, stores and formats information differently. Many lack standardized metadata, lineage or tagging. And too often, data visibility is tied to the system it lives in—email archives, file shares, cloud platforms or on-premises databases.

This fragmentation creates a data paradox: the more data agencies collect, the harder it becomes to access the right information at the right time.

Some real-world consequences:

• Missed deadlines and backlogs for FOIA requests due to poor document discovery
• Compliance violations when sensitive PII isn’t properly classified or protected
• Inefficient service delivery because staff can’t access or trust the information they need
• Redundant work across teams that don’t know similar data already exists
• Stalled AI pilots that fail due to bad or unknown training data

These problems aren’t hypothetical. They’re happening right now across the federal government. And they’re only getting worse.

What’s driving urgency?

Several trends are converging to make unstructured data management a top priority in 2025:

• New privacy laws: 20 U.S. states now have comprehensive privacy legislation, with more on the way. That means agencies operating across jurisdictions need to know exactly what resident data they hold, how it’s used and who can access it.
• AI governance mandates: As generative AI use accelerates, so does regulatory scrutiny. Agencies need to document where training data comes from and ensure it complies with federal ethics and privacy standards.
• Executive orders on data modernization: Recent federal initiatives are pushing agencies to unify data platforms, improve transparency and build trusted data pipelines that support both operational decisions and emerging technologies.
• Resource constraints: Budgets aren’t growing. Manual classification, tagging and review of unstructured data isn’t scalable. Automation is essential.

The message is clear: agencies that don’t get a handle on their unstructured data risk falling behind—on compliance, mission outcomes and innovation.

The solution: Unified governance for unstructured data

Unstructured data doesn’t need to be scary. It just needs to be governed.

With the right framework, agencies can turn chaotic document archives into structured assets, ready to support operations, audits and innovation. That means applying a consistent, scalable governance layer across all systems and file types.

Here’s how Collibra Public Sector helps make that happen.

Classification at scale

Classification helps you identify what kind of content you’re dealing with, but it doesn’t tell the whole story.

What really drives smart decision-making is context; that is, knowing not just what a file is, but where it came from, who owns it, how it’s been used and what rules apply to it.

That’s where Collibra’s semantic metadata graph comes into play.

Rather than presenting files as static objects in a folder, the metadata graph connects each asset to a living web of meaning. It surfaces relationships between data sets, business terms, systems, users, policies and lineage. In this way, Collibra offers a deep, dynamic view of how data moves and why it matters.

For government agencies, that context is crucial.

It eliminates the guesswork around whether two teams are working from the same document or duplicating effort. It helps program managers and analysts see the full lifecycle of a document—from creation through usage and archiving—so they can better coordinate, collaborate and comply. And when auditors or regulators come calling, that transparency turns hours of digging into a few clicks.

Context doesn’t just support efficiency. It builds trust. It ensures that as you scale your data programs or implement AI solutions, the data you’re drawing from is accurate, well-understood and fit for purpose.

When everyone—from IT to frontline service teams—can see the same context-rich view of the data, smarter, faster and safer decisions become the norm.

Control across systems

In most agencies, governance stops where the system boundaries begin. SharePoint might have one set of rules, cloud storage another, and file servers yet another still. This patchwork creates compliance gaps, manual workarounds and operational friction.

But we help change that.

Our FedRAMP authorized cloud platform and self-hosted options untether governance from the underlying systems. That means you can define policies once—based on role, clearance level, sensitivity or classification—and enforce them automatically across all environments.

Whether your data is stored in Microsoft 365, AWS, Azure or a legacy on-premise archive, Collibra helps assure that the right people have access to the right information, under the right conditions.

This level of control helps agencies protect sensitive information without slowing down teams. Redaction rules can automatically scrub PII before a document is shared externally. Granular access controls can limit who sees what based on mission, jurisdiction or job function. And detailed logs provide a full audit trail, so agencies can prove compliance during inspections or investigations.

Perhaps most importantly, this cross-system control makes secure data sharing possible. Whether you’re responding to a FOIA request, coordinating with a neighboring state agency, or collaborating on a federal grant, Collibra Public Sector enables you to share data with confidence, knowing it’s governed, tracked and appropriately restricted.

That kind of control is the foundation for building trust with the public and your partners.

Unlocking smarter government

Contrary to what some believe, good governance doesn’t create friction. It removes it.

When your data is well-governed, your teams spend less time searching, second-guessing or re-doing work. They move faster because they know the data they’re using is accurate, authorized and already aligned with policy.

Unified governance for data and AI gives agencies the clarity and coordination needed to modernize how they operate. With consistent rules and shared definitions across departments, agencies can deliver citizen services more quickly and transparently. They can support new digital tools and AI initiatives with confidence. And when they do this, they know that the data feeding those systems is high quality and well-documented.

It also puts agencies in a stronger position to adapt. Whether you’re responding to new privacy laws, shifting regulatory expectations or emerging federal mandates around AI oversight, a unified governance model gives you the agility to pivot quickly, without breaking your data infrastructure or jeopardizing compliance.

And over time, unified governance reduces technical debt. Instead of building one-off solutions or maintaining duplicative data sets, agencies can streamline how data is managed across its full lifecycle. That lowers costs, improves accountability and clears the way for smarter automation.

In short, unified governance isn’t just about managing risk. It’s about unlocking the full potential of your data and accelerating the work that matters most.

Why Collibra Public Sector

Collibra Public Sector helps federal agencies untangle the complexity of unstructured data with a platform designed for trust, automation and scale.

With Collibra Public Sector, you can:

• Trust your data with full visibility, lineage and metadata
• Comply with a growing patchwork of privacy and AI regulations
• Consume data confidently across use cases, teams and tools

Our platform frees your data from silos and gives every user—from data analysts to program managers—the tools they need to access, understand and use data responsibly.

We call it Data Confidence™.

Ready to tame the deluge?

Unstructured data doesn’t have to be a liability. With the right approach, it becomes one of your agency’s most powerful assets.

At Collibra Public Sector, we help federal leaders govern their full data ecosystem—structured and unstructured alike—so you can accelerate every use case safely, responsibly and with confidence.

• 

  Collibra

  Collibra Public Sector

  Unified governance for data and AI