Data Discovery Is Not Data Security
Varonis, Thursday, January 29th, 2026
Data discovery has become an important part of every data security program. From prioritizing efforts to tightening permissions to deciding where to place compensating controls, a map of sensitive data helps prioritize remediation of controls and informs detection.
In the cloud, basic data discovery is easier than in on-premises data stores. Where many on-prem systems lacked centralized hooks, rich APIs from cloud platform providers make it straightforward to enumerate objects and feed a sample of their contents to an LLM to classify. You can query containers and services for their configurations, and you have what many call 'posture' in Data Security Posture Management (DSPM). Because of its low barrier to entry, multiple vendors offer these functions today with little variation between them.