The primary use case for Varonis Platform is data discovery, specifically for discovering sensitive data in our organization to protect it. We are looking for a solution that can scan our repositories to identify sensitive data and classify it as restricted or confidential based on our information security policy. 

Additionally, we are considering its use for data security and risk assessment and managing and monitoring user activities and access permissions.

Varonis offers robust data access governance, allowing us to understand which sensitive data exists and who has access to it. It also allows us to manage access permissions. It is effective in threat management, discovery, classification, access integration, and access governance. 

Varonis is excellent for scanning unstructured data sources like file shares, OneDrive, SharePoint, Azure Blob Storage, and S3s.

Varonis started as an on-premises solution and is transitioning to cloud. It hasn't fully moved yet, which is an area for improvement. 

Varonis requires more access permissions for its core functions compared to competitors, which can be a concern for companies about data safety. 

The licensing cost of Varonis is high, which might be a drawback for mid-tier companies.

I have experience with Varonis for three to four years.

I would rate the solution's stability as eight to eight point five out of ten.

I would rate Varonis's scalability as eight to eight point five out of ten. It's a scalable solution.

Technical support from Varonis is rated as nine out of ten.

Positive

There have been instances where a company did not renew the Varonis license due to its high cost. In such cases, they may switch to other tools that are cheaper, despite Varonis's capabilities.

The initial setup is not difficult since Varonis is a Windows-based setup. However, configuring a data source for scanning requires many access permissions, which can raise concerns about data safety. Varonis needs many access permissions compared to its competitors.

We implement the tool and run scans, while different operations teams manage activities post-scan.

Varonis is known for its high licensing cost, which can include the cost of multiple servers required for its operations, called collectors. The total setup cost makes it a challenge for companies with a limited budget.

Companies may consider tools like BigID, Security AI, and others when evaluating alternatives to Varonis.

I would recommend Varonis to other businesses if their budget allows for it, as it offers great features and capabilities. Varonis suits companies focusing on unstructured data scanning, whereas competitors might be more suited for structured data.

I rate the overall solution as eight out of ten.

We use the solution to provide safer access to the new user, and provide remediate access to the user.

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.

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.

I have been using Varonis Datalert for three years.

The product is stable but it lag sometimes.

I rate the solution’s stability an eight out of ten.

The solution’s scalability is good.

I rate the solution’s scalability an eight out of ten.

The response would be a little bit quicker.

Positive

The deployment is moderate and requires technical assistance.

Data protection means that when we restrict access to a group, such as for JetPass access, only those who need it will have support. If only you need access, we will ensure that only you can access it and no one else. In the future, if others need access, they can get approval from the concerned owners to activate it. This way, we can effectively protect the data.

With Active Directory, we can improve the remediation process. If a permission group is mapped, it can be cross-checked with Active Directory. We can ensure accuracy and proper access control.

Suppose a customer asks for access to a folder. In that case, we need to ask for the required level of access, such as read-only, write access, or download permissions. Based on this information, we will gather the necessary details and process the request accordingly.

I recommend the solution.

Overall, I rate the solution a nine out of ten.

We use the solution for data loss prevention. The tool scans Google Drive documents to ensure nothing is overshared.

The solution ensures that users have not accidentally shared sensitive information with the wrong people or too many people. It monitors whether users have mistakenly shared something with an external party, the entire organization, or their personal Google account.

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

I have been using Varonis Platform for a couple of years.

I didn’t face any issues with the solution’s stability.

Only a couple of security administrators use the tool in our organization.

The solution provides good technical support.

The solution's initial setup was easy. We also had good onboarding training from the provider.

Varonis Platform wasn't certainly the cheapest solution. However, I thought it was worth the money.

We chose the solution because of its capabilities. Varonis did a proof of concept for us, giving us some very useful results. We thought the tool worked well and decided to use it. Varonis Platform is worth investigating, but users should also look at competitors in case they've caught up or if they are cheaper.

We have the tool alerting us to particular types of information. It looks for PII, credit card numbers, passport numbers, driver's licenses, etc. It also looks for passwords, which is really useful because people like to collect passwords and protect their documents. It flags those things, and we can have it immediately close off the sharing of files like that. We can also have it alert us, and we can follow up with the user.

The solution makes me more comfortable knowing that we have a safety net when people make mistakes. Earlier, we didn't know what people were doing with their data. We always wondered if people were sharing too much and if we were holding information we shouldn't be holding at all. We had no idea about those things. Varonis Platform lets us know the answers to those questions.

The onboarding provided helps new users try using the Varonis Platform. The tool is probably not very easy to figure out on your own, but the training provided is good.

Overall, I rate the solution an eight out of ten.

The most valuable feature, in my opinion, is that it serves as a central repository where you can see all of your file servers from the GUI. There are two interfaces: the web version and the graphical user interface (GUI) available on local machines.

Another valuable feature is the ability to easily apply restrictions through Varonis, without having to manually configure permissions on individual servers. You can remotely register, block, or enable server or file permissions from one central location. This can be done in bulk as well. 

I also appreciate the reporting feature, which allows for the extraction of various reports based on specific needs. These reports can be used for audit purposes, such as tracking changes in file locations or deletions.

Additionally, Varonis offers data classification capabilities. You can manually create classifications and categorize data accordingly. After a short processing time, you have visibility into where specific types of data are located.

There are many other aspects of Varonis worth mentioning, as I learn something new about it every day. However, I have now transitioned to the Microsoft platform and primarily work with Power BI, so my Varonis usage is limited these days.

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.

Additionally, although Varonis is considered an IAM tool, it also plays a role in data security. Introducing DLP (Data Loss Prevention) capabilities within Varonis would be a valuable addition. While there are ways to implement DLP within the platform, integrating it more tightly would provide greater flexibility for analysts to manage data, set restrictions, and define policies directly within Varonis.

I have been using it for eight years.

I have experience in data protection, specifically data security and identity access management. Varonis is one platform I have worked with extensively.

When dealing with a large amount of data and trying to extract a report that contains a significant amount of data, especially very old data (let's say from around 2015 or 2016), I often encountered the issue of exceeding the database limit. This prevented me from getting the desired report. 

We have communicated with Varonis multiple times regarding this issue, and they have provided updates and patches that temporarily resolve the problem. However, a permanent solution has not yet been found.

So, when dealing with huge amounts of data, the Varonis platform can sometimes encounter issues or even break down.

In my previous product-based company, we had over 10,000+ employees, but only around 50 used Varonis for administrative work. There were also business users who performed their regular activities on the platform. 

In my next organization, which was service-based, I worked for a client and created around 46 accounts for people to use Varonis.

There is a specific portal where you raise a regular ticket. Someone from the team would then contact you, and you work with them to get the issue fixed.

Plenty of times, issues were fixed within one or two days. However, there were times when no one could find a solution, and I was passed from one team to another. While this might have been due to a genuine issue, from a customer perspective, it wasn't helpful. I had to delay project activities because of the lack of support.

Neutral

Deployment isn't really a hard task. Like any other tool, it involves a setup file and a set of instructions. The account used for setup must be an administrative account, and the servers you want to connect to Varonis should have access.

It can be a bit tricky if you have an organization with two separate forests and you want to join both sets of servers under one shadow account. However, there's a solution for that. You can use two accounts simultaneously by setting them up manually, instead of relying on the automatic process. But aside from that, everything else is straightforward.

Deployment model:

Earlier, when I started with it back in 2018, it was on-premises. After the introduction of the GDPR, our organization asked us to assess our data, segregate it, and classify it. For this purpose, we acquired Varonis, and at that time, we had on-premises servers. We deployed the Varonis client on one of our servers and connected all other file servers to it to manage the data.

Sometimes I feel it's worth what I'm paying for, but with the advent of cloud computing, there are other tools in the market, like Proofpoint and some IBM tools like Guardian, that are actually better than Varonis.

It's expensive, kind of, really expensive. The Varonis platform consists of different modules, and each module has a price associated with it. You don't buy one license and get every feature; instead, different features come with different licenses and associated costs. So, if you add up all the costs, it can become very expensive.

First, you need to understand your infrastructure. If you plan to onboard Varonis on-premises, you must check your local environment and its design, especially the Active Directory setup. You need to know if users, servers, and machines are in the system and whether there's one account or multiple accounts for monitoring and reporting. These are some basic things to understand before onboarding.

Once you start onboarding your servers, you might encounter various issues, and you'll need privileged access to fix them. You also need to understand the nature of your business, the level of restrictions you want to implement, and the type of data you'll be dealing with. This understanding will help you segregate and classify your data based on sensitivity levels, such as confidential or highly confidential.

You need some basic IT skills to use Varonis. It's not extremely difficult, but it's not plug-and-play either. There are technical aspects you need to understand, such as how it works and how things will fall into place. 

Overall, I would rate the solution a six out of ten because there are multiple competing products in the market, and Varonis lags behind in some areas.