Microsoft Purview vs Varonis Platform comparison

Microsoft Purview is a unified data governance solution that helps you understand all of your on-premises, multi cloud, and software-as-a-service (SaaS) data and maintain control over its usage. With the Microsoft Purview solution, you can create a detailed, up-to-date map of your data landscape with sensitive data classification, automated data discovery, and end-to-end data lineage. Not only does it enable data curators to easily secure your data, but it also allows data consumers to find valuable, trustworthy data.

Microsoft Azure Purview is designed with:

• Data Map: Microsoft Purview Data Map provides the foundation for data discovery and effective data governance. Azure Purview Data Map is a cloud-native PaaS service that captures metadata about enterprise data present in analytics and operation systems on premises and in the cloud.
  
  
• Data Catalog: Microsoft Purview Data Catalog finds trusted data sources by browsing and searching your data assets. The data catalog aligns your assets with business terms and data classification to identify data sources.
  
  
• Data Insights: Microsoft Purview Data Insights gives you an overview of your data estate to help you discover what kinds of data you have and where.

Microsoft Purview Features

Microsoft Purview has many valuable key features. Some of the most useful ones include:

• Automated data discovery, lineage identification, and data classification
• Insights into the location and movement of sensitive data across your entire data estate
• Unified map of your data assets and their relationships for more effective data governance
• Glossary with business and technical search terms to aid data discovery

Microsoft Purview Benefits

Some of the benefits of using Microsoft Azure Purview include:

• Automate and manage metadata from hybrid sources.
• Classify data using built-in and custom classifiers and Microsoft Information Protection sensitivity labels.
• Label sensitive data consistently across SQL Server, Azure, Microsoft 365, and Power BI.
• Easily integrate all your data systems using Apache Atlas APIs.
• Search for data using technical or business terms.
• Easily understand data by browsing associated technical, business, semantic, and operational metadata.
• Quickly identify the sensitivity level of data.
• Scan your Power BI environment and Azure Synapse Analytics workspaces with a few clicks.
• Automatically publish all discovered assets and lineage to the Purview Data Map.
• Connect Microsoft Azure Purview to Azure Data Factory instances to automatically collect data integration lineage.
• Quickly determine which analytics and reports already exist without reinventing the wheel.

Reviews from Real Users

PeerSpot reviewer Kelly B., Solution Specialist at LobsterPot Solutions, says, “We're building a new system from scratch for our clients and wanted to include data governance. Their solution is hosted in Azure and it seemed logical to go with something that fits with that. Purview has a pretty good interface and I'm satisfied with what the solution does and the price it's being sold at. It integrates well with Azure technologies.” She also adds, “The initial setup was very easy, that's part of the appeal.”

Varonis Platform is a comprehensive data security and analytics solution that helps organizations protect their critical data from insider threats and cyberattacks. Its primary use case is to provide visibility and control over data access, usage, and permissions across multiple platforms and environments. 

The most valuable functionality is its ability to analyze and monitor data activity in real-time, identify abnormal behavior, and provide actionable insights to mitigate risks. It uses machine learning algorithms to detect and alert users to suspicious activities, such as data exfiltration, privilege abuse, and ransomware attacks. 

This platform enables organizations to understand and manage their data risks effectively. It helps prevent data breaches, identify and remediate vulnerabilities, and ensure compliance with various data protection regulations. By leveraging increased visibility into data usage, organizations make informed decisions regarding access controls and permissions, minimizing the potential for data leakage or unauthorized access. 

Moreover, Varonis Platform improves incident response and investigation capabilities by providing detailed audit trails and forensics capabilities. It helps organizations quickly identify the source of a security incident, understand its impact, and take appropriate actions to remediate the situation.