ALTR – an innovator of automated data governance and data security solutions – announced at Snowflake’s annual user conference Snowflake Summit 2023 the expansion of its SaaS data access control and tokenization solution with Snowflake. This solution has an industry-first format-preserving data protection module running natively on Snowpark – which is Snowflake’s development framework – providing better security, up to 1000x faster results on queries that need detokenization, cost efficiencies, and additional use cases for data sharing through easy tokenization of sensitive data.
ALTR’s new format-preserving data protection module enables sensitive data to be encrypted and decrypted by ALTR’s SaaS-based platform in Snowflake. And this takes the place of on-premises appliances that can cost millions per license and tens to hundreds of thousands per month for calls between Snowflake and the on-premises systems while adding significant lag to each query. Plus ALTR’s solution enables queries to avoid those calls for a faster response time while also ensuring at-rest data is secure because it stays entirely within Snowflake. Snowpark also enables ALTR’s solution by delivering an execution environment to facilitate data encryption and decryption through support for fully functional applications.
ALTR’s new module integrates seamlessly with the company’s existing data access control and security solution delivered natively in Snowflake as a highly available service.
The format-preserving data protection provides modernized investment protection that enables large organizations which rely on legacy applications like those in the financial services and healthcare industries, to utilize advanced data protections while maintaining data interoperability and avoid updating or replacing systems in which they have a sizable investment.
Over the past year, ALTR has released features for Snowflake including vaulted tokenization, row access policies, Snowflake data classification reporting, function extensions for custom masking, and packaging updates along with open-source integrations for utilizing ALTR directly from data catalogs and ETLs with Snowflake.
Between 2021 and 2022, ALTR recorded a 350% increase in Snowflake partner connect activations. To date this year, ALTR’s Snowflake-based ARR has increased by 485%, database connections have increased by 36%, and active policies by 44%. More than 240 customers in industry verticals including financial services, healthcare, retail/CPG, advertising and technology, industrial and logistics, and SLED and consulting rely on ALTR to help govern and secure their sensitive data.
KEY QUOTES:
“ALTR’s format-preserving encryption delivers powerful yet simple data protection to customers by securing data directly in Snowflake. It is also another demonstration of Snowpark’s value. Snowpark is enabling partners to deliver innovative solutions that make Snowflake easier to use for customers with critical workloads, like data science projects that must include the most sensitive, regulated data but also maintain high levels of data security.”
– Snowflake Security Field CTO and ALTR board member Jonathan Sander
“Format-preserving data protection functionality on its own is only part of the answer. ALTR has already made essential data access control and security features easy to implement and manage via our SaaS platform, no-code interface, range of integration options, automated policy enforcement, patented data security functions, and connections with data catalog and ETL leaders. Adding this capability to our solution through Snowpark makes completely governing and protecting data at scale even more achievable for customers.”
– James Beecham, Founder and CEO, ALTR
“Since becoming a customer in 2021, Redwood has relied on ALTR’s tokenization to secure sensitive payroll data in Snowflake so that it can be leveraged to deliver insights on financial allocation and margin contributions. We’ve been able to scale our tokenization utilization 1000% easily with ALTR as our Snowflake usage has increased, allowing us to add more sensitive data, expand to additional users, and extract even more value from Snowflake.”
– Cole Kardys, VP of Data and Analytics, Redwood Logistics
“ALTR’s easy-to-use solution allows Virgin Pulse Data, Reporting, and Analytics teams to leverage Snowflake object tagging to automatically apply data masking to thousands of tagged columns across multiple Snowflake databases. We’re able to store PII/PHI data securely and privately with a complete audit trail. Our internal users gain insight from this masked data and change lives for good.”
– Andrew Bartley, Director Data Governance and Management, Virgin Pulse
