# Data governance Effective data governance ensures the security, integrity, and usefulness of your data repositories. Imperva provides complete visibility into these repositories and enables you to apply the automated security controls critical to your data governance program. ### Analyst recognition Thales named an overall Leader in The 2025 KuppingerCole Leadership Compass for Data Security platforms [Read the report](https://www.imperva.com/resources/resource-library/reports/kuppingercole-leadership-compass-data-security-platforms-2025/) ### Trusted solution provider Many of the world's largest data-driven organizations in banking, insurance, financial services, healthcare, and government rely on Imperva [See all customer stories](https://www.imperva.com/resources/customers/?solution_filter=data-security) ### Cybersecurity innovation leader Imperva wins “Market Leader” for Data Security and “Cutting Edge” for Cloud Security in the Cyber Defense Global InfoSec Awards for 2022 [Learn more](https://cyberdefenseawards.com/global-infosec-awards-for-2022-winners-by-company/) ## So much data, so little data governance Organizations understand the importance of a [data governance](https://www.imperva.com/learn/data-security/data-governance/) program; but face big challenges implementing workable, effective solutions. Successful data governance starts with the basics - efficiently scanning, discovering, and classifying [sensitive enterprise data](https://www.imperva.com/learn/data-security/sensitive-data/). - ### Critical data often is exposed in plain sight As businesses create more value, they amass more data at an astounding rate. According to International Data Corporation (IDC) [estimates](https://www.import.io/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/Seagate-WP-DataAge2025-March-2017.pdf), by 2025, the total of all the world’s data will be approximately 175 Zettabytes, with the majority of that data being unstructured. Efficiently scanning, discovering, and classifying enterprise data (structured, semi-structured, and unstructured) contained in diverse, fragmented silos is an ongoing business challenge. [More from the blog](https://www.imperva.com/blog/top-challenges-to-implementing-data-privacy-nailing-down-discovery-and-classification-first-is-key/) - ### Manual and DIY approaches won’t scale Many businesses’ manual efforts or DIY tools don’t have the capacity to scale to the extent needed to address the sheer volume, velocity, veracity of their entire data assets, making data governance processes slow, cumbersome, expensive, and inefficient. [Find out why in the blog](https://www.imperva.com/blog/three-reasons-why-unification-drives-modern-data-security-strategy/) - ### ‘Set it and forget it’ is not an effective security and privacy strategy In the constantly-evolving data landscape, it’s an ongoing challenge to identify, classify, and correct weak security postures and inappropriate user access rights for business data governance. [See how in the blog](https://www.imperva.com/blog/7-ways-good-data-security-practices-drive-data-governance/) - ### Ongoing privileged user data access reporting consumes security resources Privileged user data access reporting - showing who has what level of access to sensitive data and what they did with it – is a critical data governance objective and can be overwhelming for many security teams. [Learn to gain control](https://www.imperva.com/blog/determining-need-to-share-vs-need-to-know-is-a-cornerstone-of-a-data-protection-strategy/) ## Data governance best practices Sound data governance requires the application of enterprise security controls to all sensitive data. Organizations cannot enforce policies on data they have not identified and classified. As [data privacy](https://www.imperva.com/learn/data-security/data-privacy/) regulations evolve, identifying and classifying sensitive data take on greater importance; as they are key to effective data analytics, operations optimization, and business decision-making. - ### Catalog your data estate with powerful automation Continuously discovering and classifying your sensitive data, no matter the data type or where it resides, is critical to maintaining an accurate catalog of your enterprise data assets. - ### Ensure appropriate access to critical security information Security teams need to know where, who, what, and how data is accessed by privileged users, so they can apply the proper data governance policies. Simplify safe access to this security information with self-service reporting and analytics tool integration that unburdens your data security team. - ### Make data security information useful with contextualization It’s difficult to leverage raw information about your data assets. Adding the right level of context provides actionable intelligence that enables you to safeguard your data’s availability and integrity. - ### Secure data at scale with centralized policy controls By centralizing security and compliance controls for all data repositories, organizations significantly reduce the time, effort, and expertise required to maintain effective data security governance. [Learn more: 7 Ways Good Data Security Practices Drive Data Governance](https://www.imperva.com/blog/7-ways-good-data-security-practices-drive-data-governance/) ## Know who’s accessing your sensitive data ### Mitigate your data security risks Automate data security compliance and security threat detection to avoid data breaches by continuously discovering and classifying all your valuable data. [Read the blog](https://www.imperva.com/blog/the-data-centric-approach-to-data-privacy/) ### Gain visibility and insights Accelerate risk mitigation and streamline incidents response by leveraging risk-based threat analysis enhanced with machine learning to spot risks early. [Read the blog](https://www.imperva.com/blog/enable-security-teams-to-leverage-machine-learning-technologies/) ### Spot risks before they become breaches Utilize advanced detection techniques to pick up evasive behaviors while applying grouping and scoring algorithms to rank and prioritize incidents. [Read the blog](https://www.imperva.com/blog/the-three-key-competencies-that-optimize-data-security-orchestration/) ## Increase your existing governance capabilities ### Obtain key benefits, such as: - Enhancing existing DAM implementations - Orchestrating end-to-end processes around sensitive data, while reducing administrative efforts ### Help organizations achieve goals, such as: - Comply with standards like SOX, Basel I/II, HIPAA, GDPR - Meet standards including COBIT, ISO/IEC 38500, & ISO/TC 215 - Maximize the security of data & enable its re-use without risk of compromise - Enhance data-driven decision making with trusted data ## How Imperva can help you with data governance ### Database Risk & Compliance Take a significant step toward comprehensive data governance with discovery, classification, and activity monitoring. [Learn more](https://www.imperva.com/products/data-security/data-risk-management/) ### Data User Behavior & Security Analytics Identify unusual data activity and policy violations to investigate and contain data misuse. [Learn more](https://www.imperva.com/products/data-user-behavior-analytics/)