Microsoft buys data-access control vendor BlueTalon
On July 29, Microsoft announced plans to buy BlueTalon, a data-centric security vendor, for an undisclosed amount. The acquisition fits in with Microsoft's focus on privacy and governance issues involving big data.
In explaining the reasoning behind the BlueTalon acquisition, Microsoft Corporate Vice President of Azure Data, Rohan Kumar, blogged:
Data privacy is one of the defining issues of our time, as evidenced by the introduction and evolution of privacy laws across the globe (e.g., GDPR, CCPA, etc.). As technology becomes more engrained in our lives and our work, it must be simple to understand and control what data is collected and easily manage who has access to that data and for what purpose.
BlueTalon is a provider of so-called "unified data access control solutions." Its products are meant to help users gain visibility and control of their data. Microsoft plans to use BlueTalon's tech and expertise to help ensure "right use of data with centralized data governance at scale through Azure," Kumar's post noted.
BlueTalon, based in Redwood City, Calif., will become part of Microsoft's Azure Data Governance Group.
BlueTalon's Policy Engine is meant to serve as a bridge between users, the apps they use and enterprise data repositories to provide authorization and data protection. Its technology works with Hadoop, SQL and NoSQL databases and big-data environements, according to its site, and can control data at the column, row, cell or partial-cell level.