According to the IDC, over 80% of data is stored in file systems or portals. For most organisations this data cannot be managed as part of a data governance strategy as neither the content or the owners of the data can be easily identified.
The recent release of Varonis' IDU Data Classification module addresses this issue and is the subject of Bloor Research's Philip Howard's post: 'A different sort of governance'. According to Howard, the solution differentiates itself from competitors by linking metadata regarding file activity to data classifications.
The Varonis Data Governance suite has traditionally focused on identifying and managing data entitlement at the click of a mouse. The solution provides full audit capabilities for systems administrators or internal audit to identify which data is exposed to which users, makes recommendations to reduce unnecessary entitlements and allows these recommendations to be tested for impact and deployed to the live environments. Comprehensive reporting capabilities make it easy to identify business owners for file systems and reduce the workload of administering permissions. This has lead to wide spread adoption for organisations looking to reduce risk and cut costs.
The new Varonis IDU Data Classification solution uses file access metadata to identify which files have changed - radically reducing the time required to maintain classifications, as well as to prioritise which files should be classified based on their accessibility and or the level of importance of the folder structure. As importantly, this means the Varonis IDU Data Classification solution allows organisations to act on the information obtained by, for example, restricting access to overly exposed personal information - a requirement for the Protection of Personal Information Act (PPI) that is entering South African legislation. The solution also supports any file type - allowing financial results spreadsheets, engineering diagrams, marketing strategy documents or new product ideas to be categorised and protected.
The Bloor post discusses the productivity gains the Varonis Data Governance suite brings to network security and operations areas - allowing organisations to quickly and easily identify data owners, users with too much access and data that is not adequately protected, and take immediate steps to enforce the necessary levels of protection. The Varonis Data Governance suite is the "best product I have seen for managing the security aspect of governance for unstructured data”, says Howard.
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