Three Reasons Why Unification Drives Modern Data Security Strategy

Today, the necessities of business innovation compel most organizations to have several teams with diverse priorities managing dozens of data sources, all with different structures. This makes it impossible to secure complete data repositories successfully using traditional methods. This post will explain how and why you need to give up siloed data security management and enable simpler, consistent end-to-end data security that will scale to your organization and truly create an effective, unified strategy.

Diverse data source environments

Managing data security was much easier when an entire organization’s data repository was contained in a few on-premises databases. These days, for nearly every organization, pressure to innovate quickly and inexpensively has made increasing their reliance on the cost-efficient pay-as-you-go architectures and scalable database capabilities offered by cloud-native environments an irresistible choice. Most enterprises use a multi- or hybrid-cloud strategy to create flexibility and avoid vendor lock-in. As a result, security teams are trying to manage orders of magnitude more data sources, with some on-premises and some in private, hybrid, and multi-cloud environments. Each data source features its own structure and requires specific APIs and methods. Organizations are discovering that current solutions, which they use to extend security controls across their on-premise data repositories, do not work in these new cloud-native environments. They are also discovering that a significant skills gap exists in addressing these challenges. This, in combination with budget restrictions and the pace of change, is severely hampering their ability to protect their data repositories. As a high-level challenge, unifying data sources, structured and unstructured, on-premises and in private, hybrid, and multi-cloud environments remain the single greatest barrier to implementing a successful data security strategy.

Under pressure to innovate quickly

New application production in cloud-native environments is a developer’s dream. It takes around five minutes for a developer to spin up a new kit in a cloud environment to support an application; no physical equipment or hardware provisioning is required, there’s no need to put it in the data center or network it, etc. In the cloud world, DBAs and developers may spin up and tear down database instances in a matter of weeks, sometimes without the knowledge of the security teams. This level of agility puts a heavy burden on the security solutions and processes that are required to keep up with that degree of change. To protect data in these environments, security people require interaction between teams which, while doable, is objectively difficult. Many organizations that accelerated their cloud migration plan without a corresponding leap in security modernization face a security controls gap, and lack the critical skills required to catch up.

Platforms that don’t work well together

As Dan Neault, Imperva’s GM of Data Security wrote, “Platforms are functionally foundations, and they accelerate the time-to-value through reuse, APIs, documented patterns, etc. Additionally, enterprise IT is inherently heterogeneous in the systems that comprise its infrastructure.” While platforms that contribute to overall data security each offer a unique value proposition, in order to meet customers’ needs, they must be easy to integrate with, easy to control, and flexible enough to work with other systems and other platforms. As data architectures have changed so dramatically in the last five years, our technology partners’ platforms that contribute to a comprehensive data security solution have changed, too. The result is a set of increasingly disparate infrastructure of tools that in theory provide a complete data security solution, but in practice do not for want of a galvanizing force to unify them.

Enter the unified approach to data security

As discussed, new cloud-native development technologies have enabled enterprises to gain new types of flexibility, business resiliency, and investment protection. DevOps teams have never been more productive. Complementary platforms now offer more sophisticated data security functionalities than ever before. Gartner reports that “[organizations] can significantly facilitate the business utilization and value of data by transitioning from siloed data security offerings” to an infrastructure that enables “simpler, consistent end-to-end data security.” The Imperva Data Security Fabric is a next generation approach designed to do this and more.

Imperva Data Security Fabric has been developed to remove barriers and friction for our customers; from unifying disparate data architectures to closing the gap between DevOps and security to integrating the most advanced functionality our technology and business partners can create. For the first time, organizations can have a unified agent and agentless architecture that enables them to gain observability and controls into all their data repositories – structured, semi-structured and unstructured, no matter where they are. DevOps teams, cloud architects, and the non-technical business people can now play an important role in organizational data security with zero effect on business performance. You have a seamless foundation on which to expand your capabilities with business and technology partners, and to increase and enhance their offerings. A true convergence of platforms.

With no additional work, the Imperva Data Security Fabric always responds to customer needs. As more data architectures are added, with more teams involved, and the more partners offer, neither the number of permutations of security controls nor TCO has to grow.

Learn what the industry experts at Gartner recommend in a Strategic Roadmap for Data Security from their latest report, 2022 Strategic Roadmap for Data Security Platform Convergence. When you are ready to find out how the Imperva Data Security Fabric can help your organizations achieve their data security goals, contact a solutions representative.