My name is Donald, and I have a confession to make.

Until yesterday, the data on my home external storage was in a sorry state. Duplicate files, random folders with even more random names… it was chaos. I know some of you are now probably rushing to the bathroom to vomit at my poor data management skills – and for that, I sincerely apologise.

So, is good data management still important in an age of powerful indexing and search tools?

I once read an article suggesting that emails should only be sorted into three simple categories – To Do, Current, and Done – with no further refinement. The idea was that time spent over-organising could be saved by relying on the email client’s search function. To be honest, that does work in some cases.

But in others – especially legal or business-critical scenarios – poor organisation can be disastrous. For eample, the case of Zubulake v. UBS Warburg, a landmark sex discrimination lawsuit. UBS couldn’t locate key emails during the trial, which contributed to them losing the case. The result? Sanctions, legal fees, and a very expensive lesson in the importance of data management.

In my experience, well-organised data often follows a hierarchical folder structure – grouping related files together, making them easier to locate and manage. This benefits both human users and indexing systems. Searching becomes faster, errors are reduced, and data integrity is easier to maintain.

On the other hand, when similar data is scattered haphazardly across random folders, systems, and even storage types – Cat5 cables here, USB drives there, Wi-Fi transfers elsewhere – it can lead to critical issues. Old or incorrect data might be used in analysis. Search indexing slows down. Money and time is wasted

So yes, modern computers are good at finding things – but ultimately, good data management is about helping people. A clear, consistent folder structure allows users to explore, locate, and make sense of their data more intuitively. This allows search tools to become even more powerful.