Varonis is the leader in unstructured and semi-structured data governance for file systems, SharePoint and NAS devices, and Exchange servers. Named a "Cool Vendor" in Risk Management and Compliance by Gartner and voted one of the "Fast 50 Reader Favorites" on FastCompany.com, Varonis has more than 4,000 installations worldwide. Based on patented technology and a highly accurate analytics engine, Varonis' solutions give organizations total visibility and control over their data, ensuring that only the right users have access to the right data at all times.

In the following interview, David Gibson, Director of Strategy of Varonis Systems discusses with Rake Narang, editor-in-chief of Network Products Guide, what CIOs and CSOs need to know about cloud based collaboration.

Rake Narang: How has enterprise security changed over the years and what’s next?

David Gibson: Organizations are realizing that they need to protect and manage their data assets more like they manage their financial assets -- with the same level of discipline, control and process -- and that they will need to work more closely with IT in order to do so.

There are two main reasons for this change.  First, the value (and volume) of digital assets is increasing, as is their potential for liability when they fall into the wrong hands. Second, the velocity and scope of collaboration has increased to the point where IT no longer has adequate context or manpower to protect data without help from the organization.

Organizations will need to better align data assets with those qualified to make good management and protection decisions, and take advantage of new technologies in order to provide data owners with actionable information and automate management and protection tasks.

IT security will need to harness the power of metadata and Big Data analytics in order to manage and protect their data, and equally important, business managers will need to be more involved in security.

Rake Narang: What really is cloud based collaboration and what should CIOs and CSOs be really aware of?

David Gibson: Cloud based collaboration is a broad category, but from a collaborative standpoint, cloud based file synchronization services (like Dropbox) seem to be top of mind. They provide an exceptionally rich collaboration experience—especially for remote employees and for tablets and smart phone access. But from an organizational perspective, they raise some interesting questions about data management and protection. For example, what does it mean if organizational data resides outside the corporate network? Is the data really secure there? How do we manage and audit access? Who retains the definitive version of the data? What recourse does an organization have if one of its employees leaves the organization but still has a copy of organizational data in the cloud?

Rake Narang: Are current cloud synchronization services enterprise-ready?

David Gibson: From a management and protection perspective, cloud systems need at least the same processes and controls as traditional systems. On top of availability contingencies, like disaster recovery plans, they need strong authentication so that only the right people get access, they need strong authorization so that authenticated users have access to only the right resources, and actual access activity needs to be monitored and reportable. Content needs to be monitored to make sure that regulated content is stored appropriately and accessible to only the right users. Organizations need to ask themselves what it will take to incorporate data management and protection processes for cloud services into the processes they use to manage internal assets—are the systems integrated or separate, and what does that mean? For example, does the organization now need to manage identities and access controls and in multiple places?

Company: Varonis Systems
1250 Broadway, 31st Floor,
New York, NY 10001 U.S.A.

Founded in: 2005
CEO: Yaki Faitelson
Products and Services: The Varonis® Data Governance Suite provides organizations the ability to keep pace with their data, manage access entitlements efficiently and effectively, audit access to every file event, identify and involve data owners and find and classify sensitive and business critical data. Varonis offers a comprehensive and effective solution for data governance using a scalable and extensible metadata framework.
Company’s Goals: Varonis will continue to deliver innovative, world-class solutions for unstructured and semi-structured data governance to give an even wider range of organizations total visibility and control over their data, ensuring that only the right users have access to the right data at all times.