“Data-centric” can sometimes feel like a meaningless buzzword. While many companies are vocal about the benefits that this approach, in reality, the term is not widely understood. One source of confusion is that many companies have implemented an older approach – that of being “data-driven” – and just called this something else. Being data-centric is not the same as being data-driven. And, being data-centric brings new security challenges that must be taken into consideration. A good way of defining the difference is to talk about culture. In Creating a Data-Driven Organization, Carl Anderson starts off by saying, “Data-drivenness is about building tools, abilities, and, most crucially, a culture that acts on data.” In short, being data-driven is about acquiring and analyzing data to make better decisions. Data-centric approaches build on this but change the managerial hierarchy that informs it. Instead of data teams collecting data, management teams making reports about it,...