The Companion Program · Varonis Companion

Posture and platform. Better together.

Varonis is the leader in data security posture management. It tells the organization who has access to what, where the sensitive data is concentrated, and what threats are emerging on the live estate. Smart Stack 3.0 is the trusted data layer beneath that visibility. The Varonis Companion is the better-together architecture for customers who have invested in Varonis and need the governed activation layer Varonis does not produce on its own.

Listen to the Podcast

The Problem This Companion Solves

Varonis solves a real problem the modern enterprise faces. Access governance at scale. The Microsoft estate has grown faster than any access control program can keep pace with. Permission inheritance creates situations where employees have access to content they should not. Sensitive data concentrations form in places nobody monitors. Insider threat indicators emerge that no traditional SIEM catches. Varonis is excellent at all of this. The platform watches the live estate, models normal access behavior, and surfaces the anomalies and exposures that matter.

Smart Stack 3.0 solves a different problem. Trusted data production at scale. The same Microsoft estate Varonis watches has never been classified for content meaning, never had ROT eliminated, never had metadata enriched, and never had Trusted Data Collections produced for AI activation. The Trusted Data Refinery turns the estate from a liability the organization cannot see into an asset it can govern, defend, and build on.

Varonis tells the organization where the sensitive data lives, who has access to it, what permission anomalies exist across the estate, and which behavioral patterns indicate elevated risk. What Varonis does not do, by architectural scope, is produce governed data assets for downstream activation. It does not eliminate ROT. It does not produce Trusted Data Collections for AI activation. It does not project governed content into Snowflake, Salesforce, Databricks, AWS, or Google. These are not Varonis failures. They are scope decisions the platform made.

The result is that organizations running Varonis still face the AI activation problem. The CISO knows where the sensitive data is. The CDO still cannot deliver AI on a governed foundation. The CIO still pays for ROT in five ecosystems. The exposure visibility is excellent. The remediation pathway from visibility to governed activation is missing. The Companion Program closes that gap.

Built for the executives who own the data estate

For the CISO

Varonis tells you that a SharePoint site contains 12,000 sensitive documents that 4,000 employees have unintended access to. Varonis can revoke the access. Varonis can flag the content for review. What Varonis cannot do, on its own, is eliminate the ROT in that site, classify the content for AI activation, produce a governed Trusted Data Collection that AI workloads can reason over, or project the result into the Companion ecosystems where it creates value. Smart Stack 3.0 does all of that. The Varonis access governance visibility informs the Smart Stack 3.0 governance prioritization. The Smart Stack 3.0 governance work resolves the underlying condition Varonis surfaced. The control surface scales with the threat landscape and with the AI surface area at the same time.

For the CDO

The CDO who has Varonis in place has security posture visibility that most peers do not. The next problem is the AI activation problem. Every ecosystem the organization runs needs governed data to be useful. Varonis tells the CDO where the sensitive data is. It does not produce the Trusted Data Collections those ecosystems need. The Trusted Data Refinery is the production layer. The CDO running both has the cleanest possible operating model. Security posture visibility from Varonis. Trusted data production from Smart Stack 3.0. AI activation across every Companion ecosystem from the Companion Program.

For the CIO

The CIO running Varonis is paying for visibility into a problem that Varonis cannot, by scope, fully solve. Varonis is the visibility line. Smart Stack 3.0 is the resolution line. Adding Smart Stack 3.0 to a Varonis deployment closes the loop. The Trusted Data Refinery eliminates the ROT Varonis surfaced. The Trusted Data Portal projects governed Trusted Data Collections into every Companion ecosystem. Storage and compute spend across Microsoft, Snowflake, Databricks, Salesforce, AWS, and Google all fall proportionally to the ROT eliminated upstream. The CIO captures the operating cost reduction Varonis visibility implied but could not deliver on its own.

What the Trusted Data Toolkit Does for Varonis Companion

Trusted Data Archive

Defensible Communications System of Record

Captures Exchange, M365, and Teams communications with WORM retention and evidentiary chain of custody. Communications data that Varonis monitors for behavioral anomalies becomes defensible record content the legal and compliance functions can produce on demand. The Archive complements the Varonis Email Security and Data Security Edge picture with a system of record posture for the communications layer.

Trusted Data Refinery

Refines the Estate Varonis Watches

Scans the same Windows File Shares, SharePoint, and OneDrive environments Varonis monitors. ROT eliminated. Sensitive content classified through Sensitive Data Classification. Metadata enriched. Trusted Data Collections produced. The Refinery resolves the underlying ROT and classification gap that Varonis surfaces but does not eliminate. Unified Optic delivers the estate intelligence dashboard that complements the Varonis access governance dashboards.

Trusted Data Portal

Activation Layer for Varonis Visibility

Governs intake, workflow, and AI activation across every Companion ecosystem. Safe Data Drop provides governed intake. Workflow Builder orchestrates remediation workflows that can incorporate Varonis-surfaced findings as inputs. The AI Governance Workflow controls what reaches Copilot, Fabric, Snowflake, Salesforce, Databricks, AWS, and Google. The Portal becomes the activation layer that turns Varonis visibility into governed AI capability.

Additional Toolkit Components

The Varonis visibility informs which parts of the estate Smart Stack 3.0 prioritizes. A SharePoint site Varonis flags as containing high-sensitivity content with broad access exposure becomes a priority for the Refinery to scan, classify, and produce a Trusted Data Collection from.

A custodian or department Varonis flags as a behavioral risk becomes a priority for the Archive's compliance posture review. A permission anomaly Varonis surfaces becomes a Workflow Builder workflow that orchestrates the remediation across both platforms.

The result is a single operating model with two specialized layers. Varonis governs access and watches behavior. Smart Stack 3.0 refines content and produces activation assets. The customer gets best-of-breed in both categories with one operating model.

What Changes for the Varonis Customer

The estate Varonis watches becomes refined. ROT that Varonis surfaced as part of its data classification picture gets eliminated. Sensitive concentrations Varonis flagged get classified for governed activation. Permission anomalies Varonis identified get remediated through Workflow Builder.

The activation surface Varonis does not directly address becomes governed. Copilot, Fabric, and every other Companion ecosystem the organization runs receives governed Trusted Data Collections rather than ungoverned source content. The AI activation problem Varonis visibility implied gets resolved.

The chain of custody picture extends. Varonis tracks access events. Smart Stack 3.0 tracks classification, mirroring, and AI activation events. Together, the two produce a comprehensive audit trail spanning access governance and content governance across the entire estate lifecycle.

The CISO and the CDO finally agree. The CISO gets the data security posture picture they have been managing through Varonis. The CDO gets the trusted data layer they need for AI activation. The two programs converge on a single estate, with two specialized platforms doing what each does best.

Posture and platform. Better together.