tietosuo

Tietosuo is a Finnish term used in information management to describe a data repository that has become difficult to navigate because of insufficient governance, inconsistent metadata, and poor data quality. The word combines tieto (data or information) and suo (bog or swamp) and is used as an analogy to the English concept data swamp. The term is informal and not standardized, but it appears in Finnish IT and data governance discussions to highlight the challenges of unmanaged data stores.

A tietosuo typically contains data from multiple sources, collected without a unified schema, documentation, or lineage. Characteristics include a lack of metadata, duplicates, incomplete records, and unclear ownership or access controls. Such environments hinder data discovery, reduce data quality, and increase risk of regulatory noncompliance, since sensitive data can be buried in untracked locations.

Management and remediation involve establishing a data governance framework, creating a metadata catalog, implementing data quality rules, and defining data lineage. Assigning data stewards, enforcing access controls, and implementing data lifecycle policies are common practices. A transition from tietosuo toward a well-governed data lake or data warehouse often requires scoping, prioritization, and ongoing governance.

See also: data lake, data warehouse, data governance, metadata management, data quality, data lineage.