IBM Data Governance vs Varonis Platform comparison

IBM and Varonis are both solutions in the Data Governance category. IBM is ranked #20 with an average rating of 8.0, while Varonis is ranked #7 with an average rating of 8.0. IBM holds a 1.6% mindshare in DG, compared to Varonis’s 9.3% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of IBM users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 92% of Varonis users who would recommend it.

IBM Data Governance

Read 1 IBM Data Governance review

827 Views
501 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

Varonis Platform

Read 13 Varonis Platform reviews

3,261 Views
2,789 Comparison Views

92% willing to recommend

IBM Data Governance

Varonis Platform

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Oct 8, 2024

IBM Data Governance and Varonis Platform compete in the data management and protection sector. Varonis seems to have the upper hand due to its advanced security features and thorough data analysis, despite IBM's competitive pricing and strong customer support.

Features: Varonis Platform offers advanced data security features such as monitoring and analyzing data access patterns, providing detailed insights into data usage, and identifying insider threats. Its sophisticated analytical capabilities are highly valued for enhancing security measures. IBM Data Governance is known for efficient data policy enforcement, compliance tracking, and streamlined governance practices, focusing more on regulatory aspects.

Room for Improvement: IBM Data Governance users suggest integration improvements with other tools, enhanced scalability for large enterprises, and better flexibility to meet diverse demands. Varonis Platform users focus on the need for better user training, increased ease of use for non-technical staff, and reducing the steep learning curve associated with its comprehensive features.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Varonis Platform is seen as more complex to deploy due to its extensive features, but users appreciate the responsive customer service that helps mitigate this challenge. IBM Data Governance enjoys praise for a simpler setup process and a helpful support team, making deployment relatively straightforward.

Pricing and ROI: IBM Data Governance is often viewed as more cost-effective, providing a quicker return on investment due to its lower initial costs. Varonis Platform, despite higher setup costs, is considered worth the investment for long-term value through its extensive security features, aligning with budget decisions based on future-proofing versus immediate constraints.

To learn more, read our detailed Data Governance Report (Updated: November 2024).

Buyer's Guide

Data Governance

November 2024

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Categories and Ranking

IBM Data Governance

Ranking in Data Governance

20th

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

7.5

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Varonis Platform

Ranking in Data Governance

7th

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

6.3

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Data Loss Prevention (DLP) (13th), SaaS Security Posture Management (SSPM) (5th), Data Security Posture Management (DSPM) (8th), Compliance Management (8th), Ransomware Protection (9th), Identity Threat Detection and Response (ITDR) (7th)

Mindshare comparison

As of December 2024, in the Data Governance category, the mindshare of IBM Data Governance is 1.6%, up from 1.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Varonis Platform is 9.3%, up from 7.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Data Governance

Featured Reviews

Murali B

Associate Manager at Ernst & Young

Provides a single interface to monitor and navigate data quality metrics

One area with room for improvement would be the ability to generate detailed quality reports. Some Python libraries provide quality scores and reports—having that capability within IBM Data Governance would be beneficial. We can see the pass/fail results, but getting additional percentage ratios would add significant value. My experience with IBM Data Governance has mostly been with the GUI. I've noticed some latency when accessing the portal. Also, automating reports can sometimes hang, though that might depend on the overall system. That's where I see the most room for improvement – quicker report generation. Fetching specific data from the IBM Data Governance repository tends to be slower compared to other vendors. For example, Collibra has a more responsive GUI. Retrieving large datasets from the IBM catalog is particularly slow.

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Frederic Delos

Senior Cloud Engineer at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees

Offers the ability to identify sensitive areas, allowing you to drill down into the sensitive data

The most effective feature for me is its ability to identify sensitive areas, allowing you to drill down into the sensitive data, provided you have access, to determine whether it's a false positive or a true positive. That's the best thing for me, out of all of it. It's got everything, like other ones, but I like to be able to look at something if I'm doing forensics on the alert and say, "Okay, do I really need to do something with this?" For example, we don't want sensitive data in our OneDrive. So it identifies the sensitive data that's possibly in the OneDrive. And what I can do is look at it and identify whether it's actually sensitive data in Datalert or whether it looks like sensitive data, but I know it's a false positive. If it is a false positive, I can basically say ignore this pattern based on X, Y, and Z, you know, whether it's Redjax or keyword proximity. So I like that. With other tools, I gotta go through a whole process because it's a little bit more complex. Here, I can tag it and bag it in one shot. And the next good time I scan, it slips over it. So it helps in that.

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Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Pros

"IBM Data Governance improved data analytics operations. During a company merger, we used IBM Data Governance to understand and bridge sample data between systems."

"The most important feature is remediation. In remediation support, there is no group permission. We'll go ahead and remediate the access from the Dell folder to the parent folder."

"That alerting and reporting service is great."

"The solution ensures that users have not accidentally shared sensitive information with the wrong people or too many people."

"The 24/7 support is the most valuable feature. They have been able to answer support questions pretty quickly."

"On the Varonis side, technical support is phenomenal. Their ability to explain is very good, and they seem to be very knowledgeable. When I get an alert that doesn't quite make sense, they dive in there and kind of take me through it. That's very useful and very good. There are some false alerts, but it is better to have a false alert than no alert at all."

"It can easily identify unusual behavior or access patterns that may pose a potential threat, while operating as a unified reporting system."

"Varonis Platform is transparent and captures everything in the environment without impacting the performance. The tool helps us unify data feeds into a single reporting system."

"The solution's classification engine is highly configurable and efficient."

More Varonis Platform pros

Cons

"One area with room for improvement would be the ability to generate detailed quality reports. Some Python libraries provide quality scores and reports—having that capability within IBM Data Governance would be beneficial."

"It is significantly complex."

"The GUI should be more functional. There should be a process for connecting through Chrome, Internet Explorer, etc."

"I'd like to see automatic updates for this solution. Currently, it's a manual process to update all the keywords"

"The remediation process can be improved. There will be no existing permission group for the McAfee channel domains. We can create a new permissions group for the required folder."

"One area for improvement is the calculation engine. When applying rules in Varonis, especially for large datasets (terabytes of data), the calculations can be slow and require time to process. Speeding up this process would be beneficial."

"There is one thing that if I add something manually, I get so many alerts. That's the biggest bad thing."

"The solution's interface is a little complicated with regard to setting up filters and reports."

"I would like it to have cloud integration."

More Varonis Platform cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

Information not available

"Varonis Platform wasn't certainly the cheapest solution."

"Licensing is on an annual basis. Maintenance and renewal fees are separate. Varonis Datalert is quite expensive."

"The pricing is good. It neither expensive nor cheap. It is average."

"It's expensive, kind of, really expensive."

"You could do a subscription, where you pay yearly, or you could purchase it outright. The licensing cost is based on the number of users on the system that you are monitoring."

"I would rate the pricing an eight out of ten, with ten being the most expensive."

"The platform is expensive. I rate the pricing a nine out of ten."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

19%

Computer Software Company

12%

Government

Manufacturing Company

Financial Services Firm

15%

Computer Software Company

12%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Insurance Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

No data available

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about IBM Data Governance?

IBM Data Governance improved data analytics operations. During a company merger, we used IBM Data Governance to understand and bridge sample data between systems.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for IBM Data Governance?

I would rate pricing an eight out of ten, where one is cheap and ten is expensive. It's pretty expensive.

See all answers

What needs improvement with IBM Data Governance?

See all answers

What do you like most about Varonis Platform?

The solution has significantly improved data security and compliance posture by allowing us to track and monitor activities. We can see who accesses data and when files are created and understand w...

See all answers

What needs improvement with Varonis Platform?

The solution's areas of improvement are the interface and the dependency on on-premises deployment for some components. The interface has improved with the move to a SaaS model, but aspects could s...

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What is your primary use case for Varonis Platform?

Customers use the product to identify sensitive information, correlate it with access permissions, and utilize its automation engine for remediation. It includes fixing broken permissions and manag...

See all answers

Comparisons

Microsoft Purview Data Governance vs IBM Data Governance

Compared 78% of the time

Microsoft Purview Information Protection vs IBM Data Governance

Compared 14% of the time

Collibra Governance vs IBM Data Governance

Compared 8% of the time

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Microsoft Purview Data Governance vs Varonis Platform

Compared 16% of the time

BigID vs Varonis Platform

Compared 14% of the time

Cyera vs Varonis Platform

Compared 8% of the time

Wiz vs Varonis Platform

Compared 5% of the time

CrowdStrike Falcon vs Varonis Platform

Compared 4% of the time

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Data Governance

November 2024

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Buyer's Guide

Varonis Platform

November 2024

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Learn More

IBM

Varonis

Overview

IBM Data Governance is a comprehensive solution designed to help organizations effectively manage and govern their data assets. Its primary use case is to establish and enforce data policies, standards, and rules across the enterprise.

The most valuable functionality of IBM Data Governance includes data classification, data lineage, and data quality management. Data classification enables organizations to categorize and label data based on sensitivity, ensuring compliance with regulations like GDPR. Data lineage provides a clear understanding of the origin and movement of data, facilitating data governance and decision-making. Data quality management ensures data accuracy, completeness, and consistency, enhancing overall data reliability.

IBM Data Governance helps organizations in several ways. Firstly, it improves data visibility and control, enabling organizations to understand their data landscape and make informed decisions. Secondly, it enhances data security and privacy by enforcing policies and standards, reducing the risk of data breaches. Thirdly, it promotes collaboration and accountability among data stakeholders, fostering a culture of data governance. Lastly, it enables organizations to optimize data usage and value, leading to improved operational efficiency and better business outcomes.

Varonis Platform specializes in network security and data monitoring with modules for alerting, data classification, and access management, benefiting environments like Microsoft 365.

Varonis is designed to secure data by auditing and tracking data movement. It leverages data alert and classification modules to identify and manage sensitive information. The platform enhances network security by alerting users to unexpected data modifications and deletions, crucial for effective data loss prevention. It supports unstructured data management, ensuring proper data access and permission controls. Known for its 24/7 support, Varonis offers comprehensive analytics and unified reporting, helping prevent data overexposure and facilitating compliance efforts.

What are the key features of Varonis Platform?

24/7 Support: Provides round-the-clock assistance.
Data Monitoring: Tracks data activities efficiently.
Unified Reporting: Consolidates data access reports.
Data Classification: Identifies sensitive data effectively.
Permission Management: Simplifies managing access rights.
Behavior Analytics: Detects abnormal behavior patterns.

What benefits should be highlighted in user reviews?

Enhanced Security: Improves data protection measures.
Compliance Support: Assists in meeting compliance standards.
Data Transparency: Offers clarity in data access activities.
Access Control: Ensures proper access to data.
Centralized Remediation: Eases remediation procedures.

Varonis Platform is widely utilized in industries needing stringent data confidentiality and management, such as finance and healthcare, for tracking data modifications and unauthorized access. Enterprises deploy it to manage permissions within large datasets, benefiting Microsoft 365 environments. While Varonis requires enhancements in cloud integration, the current deployment is often based on-premises, with attention to addressing the security needs and effective data handling for critical infrastructure.

Sample Customers

TIAA CREF, Control Risks Group

Nottingham Building Society

Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft, Informatica, Collibra and others in Data Governance. Updated: November 2024.

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