Varonis

I mainly use Varonis Platform  to identify the overall security posture of an organization from a data security point of view. When you want to understand where exactly the critical data resides, it functions as a discovery tool. From an initial point, you can see where exactly the data resides. With that capability, it can also allow you to put a restriction if there is an open base. Overall, if you want to check your data from an initial point of view, Varonis Platform  is the best use case you can consider.

The functions of Varonis Platform that I appreciate the most include the data transport engine, which is something I haven't seen in other DSPM tools. This engine allows you to move your stale data to an archive location in an automated solution that requires nothing from you. It is pre-filled and happens in the background, moving your data whenever required. This functionality has been coded into the platform itself.

I do use the data classification feature in Varonis Platform, and it is indeed useful because of the dictionaries, pre-built features, and custom classifiers it has, which is commendable. It also gives you the capability to write regex if you wanted. In comparison to Purview , I would rate it in second place, with Purview  being the top one.

My opinion about the ML-based threat detection capabilities in Varonis Platform is that it doesn't have its own ML. What they did was integrate with Co-pilot as an extended feature. From the organization's perspective, organizations can simply do the scanning and everything from Co-pilot itself rather than going to the tool itself. From an AI use case, the threat intelligence covers more gaps and can detect an anomaly from a user perspective. If a person has regularly been using a particular folder, it detects those patterns. Earlier, an analyst would have had to write those rules, but now AI and ML in the system can actually detect those anomalies.

User behavior analytics in Varonis Platform is helpful for my company's security posture. UBA  is an excellent feature and a classic example of integrating AI with the data security posture. There would be many actions done from a user end that you cannot treat manually. The AI capability and user behavior analytics understand how exactly a user is working on a day-to-day basis and how it normally goes. If there is anything abnormal, it should trigger an alert or an automated response action, which Varonis Platform has this capability inside the data alert module.

The potential areas of improvement I see for Varonis Platform are that it doesn't have a SIEM  or SOAR  console where you can see your incidents or a native style incident case management where you can see all your incidents and do the tracking of all those things. The endpoint part is also missing in Varonis Platform. It cannot inspect the DLP  things. For example, when somebody is trying to print something, Varonis Platform cannot block that action. That is also one major use case that I see is missing from Varonis Platform.

I have been working with the solution for about seven years.

I would rate the technical support from the vendor between six and seven. I rate the technical support at this level because there are times when people are not skillful enough to understand the issue. You need to speak to them again and again and let them know about the process and what exactly the issue is. Then they understand and conduct what I would call an inside connect investigation. They do a lot of investigation and then come back to us. This takes a lot of time. The matter of how much time it will take is something I wish was faster, as sometimes you need a quick response. However, I do get my resolution every time.

Varonis Platform's initial setup is simple because whatever the requirements are for implementing a solution inside an organization, all those features are enabled. A service account is required to navigate through the platform, which I believe is ultimately the same for each tool for their agent to run on. The setup is not complicated.

The main benefits for me as an end user of Varonis Platform include its excellent performance from a security point of view. There is also a very good feature in its capability for basic IAM  features where you can manage the ownership and file permissions. Earlier, you had to go into that particular folder to manage it, but now from Varonis Platform, you only have to go inside the console and see where exactly the open areas are and conduct those IAM  activities rather than using a classical IAM  tool such as Active Directory or an intranet. This means all you can do is just access it from Varonis Platform, which is a classical benefit I have received. I rate this product as an eight overall.