Varonis unveils cloud-native solution for database security
Varonis has launched a database activity monitoring solution aimed at strengthening its data security platform and entering the database activity monitoring (DAM) market.
The newly released Varonis Next-Gen Database Activity Monitoring (DAM) is designed as an agentless, cloud-native offering that aims to address traditional challenges associated with database security and compliance.
Market entry
The DAM solution is part of Varonis' strategy to expand its role in data protection within an increasingly AI-driven environment. The company has highlighted the importance of databases as critical assets for the global economy and as the core infrastructure supporting artificial intelligence projects.
New approach to legacy challenges
According to Varonis, legacy solutions in the DAM sector, such as Imperva and IBM Guardium, rely on technology stacks and deployment models that can be challenging to manage and slow to roll out. These traditional approaches require the installation of agents, may necessitate dedicated hardware, and often involve significant demands on staff resources.
"Legacy DAM solutions like Imperva and IBM Guardium use outdated, agent-based technology that takes years to deploy and require hardware and multiple FTEs to operate. Even when deployed successfully, legacy DAM rarely provides more than a compliance checkbox. Varonis offers customers a modern alternative that is fast, cloud-based, and delivers security outcomes far beyond what legacy DAM offers," said Varonis VP of Product Strategy and former Imperva CTO Terry Ray.
Feature set
The Next-Gen DAM incorporates several core functionalities that Varonis contends will close existing security gaps. These include activity monitoring, which provides an audit trail of all database queries across cloud and on-premises environments. User and entity behaviour analytics are applied to detect and block suspicious actions as well as attempted data exfiltration in real time.
Other components include data discovery and classification for identifying databases housing sensitive information, database access control to map permissions to corporate identities, and automated remediation - features that collectively allow organisations to revoke excessive permissions and enforce security policies without manual intervention.
Unification of data security management
Varonis emphasises the product's integration into its data security platform, asserting that it provides coverage for data at rest and in transit and supports automatic response to emerging threats. The company suggests this approach will help organisations reduce the risk of unauthorised data exposure as data proliferates across different environments.
The DAM capabilities are available for a range of widely-used databases, including but not limited to Databricks, Microsoft SQL Server, Amazon RDS, Postgres, Oracle, and Snowflake.
Context in the sector
The DAM market has seen limited new entrants in recent years, with existing solutions generally remaining focused on compliance requirements rather than adaptive security monitoring. Several organisations cite the complexity of deployment and management as reasons for slow or incomplete DAM implementation. The Varonis release positions itself as a response to these factors, providing a solution claimed to reduce operational overhead and deployment timelines.
The details provided by Varonis reflect an industry trend towards unified, cloud-native data security tools designed to address the needs of enterprises managing large volumes of sensitive information in dynamic environments.
