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As far as users are concerned, data knows no bounds. End users have ample resources at their disposal – cloud, business and mobile devices – to move data around at will and consume as they see fit.

Businesses, on the other hand, don’t have that luxury. Bound by regulations and standards, businesses must govern the location, integrity and security of data regardless of where it resides – and prevent it from moving to unauthorized places.

Symantec is moving deeper into data governance through the acquisition of LiveOffice, its previous OEM partner for cloud-based data archiving. LiveOffice will fill a significant gap in Symantec’s portfolio of data governance and eDiscovery compliance, expanding its ability to meet the operational, legal and business needs of data management.

“What were once disparate issues – information management, eDiscovery and data security – are rapidly coming together due to the explosion of electronically stored information and the on-premise and cloud-based technologies that deliver and disseminate it. Organizations are increasingly demanding that these issues be addressed in a unified way through information governance,” said Brian Dye, vice president of Symantec’s Information Intelligence Group.

Information governance and eDiscovery are areas Symantec has been plying for the past several years. Government regulations and legal evidence standards for data retention and recovery have forced businesses of all sizes to retain copious amounts of data for years. And the expectation is for businesses to produce that information quickly if needed for court proceedings.

In parallel to these legal standards is the proliferation of information sharing and data portability. Storage media capacity has substantially increased in smaller form-factors, making it trivial to copy and move files. Further, the proliferation of file sharing, social networks and public cloud services is making it easier for end users to access data from wherever they like.

With the LiveOffice acquisition and previously acquired assets, notably the Clearwell eDiscovery Platform, Symantec is integrating cloud, backup, data vaulting and information management technologies to index, track and restrict data across various platforms.

Symantec isn’t the only vendor looking to create a data management lifecycle to addresses legal, social and data integrity issues. Rivals that do and could compete in this space include Hewlett-Packard’s recently acquired Autonomy, EMC, ComVault, Guidance Software, IBM and EMC – as well as a host of others.

While the adoption of such individual technologies – much less integrated into a lifecycle suite – is relatively low, more businesses are expected to seek solutions to provide data governance. Businesses want to allow their employees to use information in ways that makes them most productive – and the raft of social and cloud tools certain extends user capabilities. However, what happens to data and how to safeguard it from compromise is the great mystery. Businesses are increasingly asking for ways to at least track data; governance and control are not far behind on the demand curve.

Over the next two years, expect more vendors to follow Symantec and others into the creation of lifecycle and governance suites and, ultimately, integrated systems that address security, compliance and operational issues. These tools – increasingly powerful and easier to use – will become a boon for solution providers serving security-conscious and regulated businesses.