In his latest post Jim Gill of Hanzo tells about “SaaS sprawl” in terms of what it is and how it relates to enterprise eDiscovery!

In the article (What is SaaS Sprawl and How Does it Affect Enterprise Ediscovery?), available here), Jim discusses that the growing use of Software as a Service (SaaS) applications encompasses many uses, including project management, ticketing services, content management, sales data, and more. And each of them usually contains a communications element using comments or built-in messaging channels. This dynamic functionality along with the easily adoptable nature of these applications creates a sprawl of complex sources of discoverable information across the enterprise data landscape.

How ubiquitous is SaaS sprawl? In a 2022 Hanzo blog post, Jim cited a source that showed 99% of organizations were using one or more SaaS solutions at the end of 2021. And even more telling, according to the 2020 SaaS Trends Report, enterprises with employees ranging from 100-1000+, used on average 288 different applications within their organization. That study also cited a 60% app turnover rate, indicating a constant influx of new data sources continually introduced into an organization’s enterprise data stores.

How does that relate to eDiscovery? And what are three cases that illustrate the eDiscovery challenges (all cited from eDiscovery Today, no less)? Find out here – it’s just one more click! Extend your “sprawl” from this post to his post! 😉

So, what do you think? Are you surprised by how many SaaS apps organizations use? Please share any comments you might have or if you’d like to know more about a particular topic.

Disclosure: Hanzo is an Educational Partner and sponsor of eDiscovery Today

Disclaimer: The views represented herein are exclusively the views of the author, and do not necessarily represent the views held by my employer, my partners or my clients. eDiscovery Today is made available solely for educational purposes to provide general information about general eDiscovery principles and not to provide specific legal advice applicable to any particular circumstance. eDiscovery Today should not be used as a substitute for competent legal advice from a lawyer you have retained and who has agreed to represent you.