Our journey to the data security fabric started a while back when we built the industry’s first data security platform based on what customers said they needed and working with customers as design partners. The concept of a software platform has been around for a long time. Like all platforms, we built a stack on which applications are built (in our case security applications) – by us here at Imperva, by our customers, and by our partners. 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. To meet the needs customers shared with us, our platform had to be easy to integrate with, easy to control, and flexible enough to work with other systems and even other platforms.
But as we saw how customers were using our software, and as our design partners kept pushing the boundaries, we realized we needed to take an extra step. What drove this was that data architectures have been changing so significantly in the last five years – and we believe will continue to change at a rate that is unprecedented. That’s when the Imperva Data Security Fabric (DSF) was born – as an evolution of the data security platform. Some may say it’s a subtle difference, but we now realize it is not subtle at all because it makes a big difference when viewed as how our customers derive value from it.
Going beyond the “platform” – the power of a data security fabric
A fabric provides capabilities that can be leveraged in more flexible ways, on more “platforms” and architectures, and based on customer needs, anywhere. As an example, DSF can run on-premises, on one or more hyper-scalers or public clouds, and on private clouds equivalently well. Most importantly – without requiring more work. So as the number of permutations of data architectures grow, the number of permutations of security controls do NOT have to grow – which radically simplifies customers’ operational tasks to ensure that the right set of security controls are applied to wherever data lives. The TCO doesn’t scale up and is even reduced relative to alternatives in our industry – which is both amazing and predictable because customers were truly our design partners from the outset.
We have seen how important this is for our customers – initially for the innovators who push the limits of data architectures and now for everyone. New development technologies, particularly those in the cloud, have enabled enterprises to gain new types of flexibility, business resiliency and investment protection. For security teams, this surfaces new challenges related to securing a more complex topology. A few years ago, security teams that might have been managing three to five on-premises databases are now trying to manage orders of magnitude more, with some on-premises and some in private, hybrid, and multi-cloud environments. And we see every day now that the stakes for getting cybersecurity right have never been higher. Imperva Data Security Fabric provides a unified agent and agentless architecture that enables organizations to gain observability and controls into all their data repositories – structured, semi-structured and unstructured, no matter where they are. Not only do the security teams benefit from this comprehensive fabric, but technology development teams, cloud architects, and the non-technical business people also gain confidence in the system and understand their organization’s security posture. They know if there is a security incident, they have the resources and technology to mitigate any threat.
We found our fabric vision to be as powerful in practice as in theory. The Imperva Data Security Fabric offers a strong set of data security and governance capabilities, and flexes in many directions and in multiple dimensions across a breadth of IT systems. It embodies what Imperva customers demand to meet today’s dynamic and multi-dimensional threat landscape. Customers want to know that no matter the direction the threat vector comes from, the volume of an attack, or the area in their enterprise where an attack is being waged their data security fabric is “wrapped around” them and the architectures they use, providing the protection they need.
Imperva Data Security Fabric is all about integration and interoperability
Another great attribute of the Imperva Data Security Fabric is that it works with the ecosystem to stitch other capabilities into it such that new extensions are strong like the rest of the fabric. This attribute of DSF expands the world of opportunities to connect Imperva and our customers with partner capabilities in constantly-expanding ways. Importantly, it means that the investments our customers make are long-lived and future-proof.
One of our goals with the Imperva Data Security Fabric is to simplify customers’ path on their security journey by leveraging more and more capabilities – even those that were not organically built by Imperva. Imperva Data Security Fabric has been designed to remove barriers and friction for customers. An integral part of this approach has been to re-think our relationships with partners; with technology partners like Mage to expand our capabilities and with business partners like Google, Azure, and AWS that provide a foundation we can build upon to enhance their offerings. We are also increasingly leveraging the technical expertise of Imperva’s channel partners and global, national, and local SIs that are partnering with our customers. You could think about this as a “partner network fabric” that makes it easier for our customers to experience us all integrated as one weave committed to achieving data security.
The Imperva Data Security Fabric caters to organizations of all shapes and sizes
The flexible, scalable nature of the Imperva Data Security Fabric and the portfolio of technology we provide invites all organizations to achieve data security. Businesses are interconnected like never before. Today, a large financial services or insurance company will work with dozens of other enterprises large and small to optimize digital experiences for their customers and employees. When bad actors create challenges for these other organizations, it can have a profound business impact on the large organization as well. We make a data security fabric for everyone because today’s business fabric connects so many organizations like never before.
The Four Pillars of the Imperva Data Security Fabric
For our customers, the Imperva Data Security Fabric incorporates four strategic pillars designed to support their requirements. First is our ability to secure all data types; structured, semi-structured, and unstructured. Second, providing visibility into data no matter where it is; on-premises or in private, hybrid, or multi-cloud environments. Third, our commitment to leveraging technology, business, and channel partners and worldwide SIs to make the process seamless. And fourth, providing consultative insights and expertise to ensure customers maximize the value of their investment.
Learn more about Imperva’s Data Security Fabric
- Watch the explainer video Imperva Data Security Fabric
- Explore Imperva Data Security
- Learn more about the Imperva Technology Alliance Partner Program
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