Varonis Research Uncovers What IT Security Wants Most From Big Data

PRESS RELEASE

NEW YORK, MAY 22, 2012 -- More than two-thirds of IT people think Big Data should be a strategic priority according to research conducted by Varonis, the leading provider of comprehensive data governance software. More than half expect Big Data to be a strategic initiative over the next five years, but fewer than half of the respondents felt there was a clear definition of Big Data, even fewer felt they had adequate knowledge of Big Data products. When asked how they would like to use Big Data, the respondents had clear ideas – the top three most selected applications were: finding at risk sensitive data, identifying possible malicious activity and finding users with excessive access rights.

The results indicate that while the majority of organizations in this study will engage in Big Data strategic initiatives over the next 5 years, a broad understanding of Big Data remains elusive. With over 80% of respondents rating their knowledge of Big Data products as low, but identifying how they’d like to use Big Data (fixing access control and protecting data), two things are clear: IT needs more specific information about the practical applications of Big Data, and when they get this information the majority will be supportive of corresponding projects.

"This survey validates what Varonis experiences with the organizations we engage with daily – IT is looking for practical Big Data solutions for data management and protection. With the explosion of data and the demand for rapid, ubiquitous digital collaboration, IT knows traditional data management methods can no longer keep pace, so they are looking for advanced solutions to protect their data. The key for IT with Big Data is to get past all the hype and to learn more about the practical benefits, like finding exposed sensitive data, flagging malicious activity and identifying excessive access,” said David Gibson, vice president of strategy at Varonis.

To download the full Big Data Research report, visit http://hub.varonis.com/big-data-survey-results/

About Varonis Systems

Varonis is the leader in unstructured and semi-structured data governance software. 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, all use is monitored, and abuse is flagged.

Varonis makes digital collaboration secure, effortless and efficient so that humans are free to work -- to create and share content easily with whom they must, and so that organizations can be confident their human generated content is protected and managed efficiently.

Voted one of the "Fast 50 Reader Favorites" on FastCompany.com and winner of the SC Award for Best Network Security, Varonis has more than 4,500 installations worldwide and is headquartered in New York, with regional offices in Europe, Asia and Latin America.

Varonis, the Varonis logo, DatAdvantage and DataPrivilege are registered trademarks of Varonis Systems in the United States and/or other countries and Data Classification Framework and Metadata Framework are under a registration process in the United States and/or other countries. All other product and company names and marks mentioned in this document are the property of their respective owners and are mentioned for identification purposes only.