DataGravity Extends Data Management to Realm of Security

DataGravity this week extended the scope of the data management software it embeds in its storage systems to include support for alerts that get generated when sensitive data gets stored on it Discovery Series platform.

Looking to carve out a space in a crowded storage field by embedding data governance, search and discovery, and data protection tools to drive the convergence of information and storage management, Version 2 of the DataGravity Discovery Series now extends those management capabilities in the realm of security, Jeff Boehm, VP of marketing for DataGravity, said.

“We are making it easier to both find and define sensitive data,” said Boehm. “Security capabilities now have to be built into everything.”

In general, DataGravity is trying to drive the convergence of data and storage management at the expense of established storage vendors that charge extra for information management software or require IT organizations to license third-party data management software. The startup raised a $50 million Series C funding round late last year, bringing its total funding to $92 million.

Naturally, it’s a lot easier to drive that convergence in a midmarket sector, where IT job roles are not as well defined as they are in larger enterprise IT organizations. As such, the number of people making decisions across information management and data storage technologies in a midmarket IT organization is substantially fewer compared to enterprise IT organizations where information management and storage security are often considered separate domains managed by different teams within the organization.

As part of the effort Discovery Series V2 provides automated email alerts that notify organizations when and where sensitive information is stored, and how it’s being handled. That information can then be correlated against IT polices to enable administrators to identify user access anomalies and potential compliance violations.

Also now included is the ability to audit who accesses what data based on their role in the organization along with tools that allow administrators to define, assign, and schedule compliance policy checks. DataGravity has added support for custom and pre-defined tagging, which lets administrators create company- and domain-specific tags around particular terms or classes of data.

Finally, DataGravity is also making available a plug-in to VMware vRealize Operations and Log Insight management software that is widely employed in VMware environments to manage IT infrastructure.

Aimed primarily at midmarket IT organizations, the Discover Platform is only available via 150 reseller partners that DataGravity has thus far authorized. Deliverable in three models, ranging from 18 to 96TB, the solution’s pricing starts at $45,000.

As one of the first of what DataGravity describes as a “data aware” storage platform, it may only be a matter of time before data security and compliance issues force the convergence of information and storage management everywhere.