DATA CLASSIFICATION PIPELINE INCLUDING AUTOMATIC CLASSIFICATION RULES

Described is a technology in which data items (e.g., files) are processed through an extensible data processing pipeline, including a classification pipeline, to facilitate management of the data items based upon their classifications. A discovery module locates data items to process. An independent classification pipeline obtains metadata (properties) associated with each discovered data item, and one or more classifiers classify the data item based on the metadata. An independent policy module applies policy to each data item based upon its classification. Multiple classifiers may be invoked, based upon various criteria. Predefined ordering of the classifiers, authoritative classifiers and/or an aggregation mechanism handle any classification conflicts. Different types of classifiers may be provided, and each classifier may correspond to automatic classification rules; the classifier may directly change a property, (e.g., set the classification) or return a result to a corresponding rule mechanism for changing a property.