Our customers are confused. Given the state of the world, it’s safe to say everyone is a little confused now. The confusion we’re concerned with today is about the markets ALTR plays in and how the analysts of the world – particularly Gartner – are breaking those down and making recommendations. What we’ll aim to do here is analyze the analysis. We’ll lay out the questions customers are asking about the markets and solutions for Data Security Posture Management (DSPM) and Data Security Platform (DSP), see what Gartner is saying about those today, offer some reasons why we think they are right, and finally show why the confusion is real.  

Maybe that seems like a contradictory stance to take, but let’s not forget what F. Scott Fitzgerald told us: “The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposing ideas in mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function.” By the end of this post, it should be clear that Gartner and others have only correctly identified a confusing time in data governance and security; they have not made things any more confusing.  

Let’s start out where customers have told us they get confused. We’ll go right to the source and quote from Gartner’s own public statements on DSPM and DSP. First, let’s look at how they define Data Security Posture Management:  

Data security posture management (DSPM) provides visibility as to where sensitive data is, who has access to that data, how it has been used, and what the security posture of the data stored, or application is.

(Source: https://www.gartner.com/reviews/market/data-security-posture-management as of March 26^th, 2024)

We could pick that apart right away, but instead let’s immediately compare it with their definition of a Data Security Platform:

Data security platforms (DSPs) combine data discovery, policy definition and policy enforcement across data silos. Policy enforcement capabilities include format-preserving encryption, tokenization and dynamic data masking.

(Source: https://www.gartner.com/reviews/market/data-security-platforms as of March 26^th, 2024)

At first glance, these seem incredibly similar – and they are. However, there are important differences in the definitions’ text, in their implied targets, and in the implications of these factors. The easiest place to see a distinction is in the second part of the DSP definition: “policy definition and policy enforcement." The Data Security Platform does not only look at the “Posture” of that system. It is going to deliver a security solution for the data systems where it’s applied.  

When talking to customers about this, they will often point out two details. First, they will say that if the DSP can’t do the discovery of at least the policy of the data systems then it isn’t much good that they give you ways to manage the protection. The subtlety here is that controlling the data policy implies that the solution would discover the current policy in order to control it going forward. (While it’s possible that some solution may give you policy control without policy discovery, ALTR gives you all those capabilities, so we don't have to worry about that.) The second thing they point out is that many of the vendors who are in the DSPM category also supply “policy definition and policy enforcement” in some way. That brings us to discussing the targets of these systems.  

Something you will note as a common thread for the DSPM systems is how incredibly broad their support is for target platforms. They tend to support everything from on-prem storage systems all the way through cloud platforms doing AI and analytics like Snowflake. The trick they use to do this is that they are not concerned with the actual enforcement at that broad range, and that’s appropriate. Many of the systems they target, especially those on-prem, will have complicated systems that do policy definition and enforcement. Whether that’s something like Active Directory for unstructured data stored on disk or major platforms like SAP’s built-in security management capabilities, they are not looking for outside systems to get involved. However, the value of seeing the permissions and access people use at that broad scope can be very important. Seeing the posture of these systems is the point of the DSPM.  

Of course, a subset of the systems will allow the DSPM to make changes that can be effective easily without requiring them to get too deep. If it’s about a simple API call or changing a single group membership, then the DSPM can likely do it. However, in systems where there are especially complex policies those simple, single API calls become about the “policy definition and policy enforcement" in the Data Security Platform definition. The DSP will get deep within the systems they target. Often, part of the core value of a DSP is that it will simplify what are extremely complicated policy engines and give ways to plug these policy definition steps into the larger scope of systems building or the SDLC. That focus and depth on the actual controls in targeted systems is the main difference between DSPM and DSP. The Data Security Platform narrows the scope, but it deepens the capabilities to control policies and to deliver security and governance results.  

The other important aspect of the distinction between these solutions is the Data Security Platform capabilities for Data Protection. That’s the “format-preserving encryption, tokenization and dynamic data masking” part of the DSP definition. Many data systems will have built-in solutions for data masking. Almost none will have built-in tokenization or format-preserving encryption (FPE). If these capabilities are crucial to delivering the data products and solutions an organization needs, then DSP is where they will look for solutions. This not only impacts data use in production settings, but often is associated with development and testing use cases where use of sensitive information is forbidden but use of realistic data is required.  

Let’s recognize the elephant in the analysis: DSPM and DSP are going to have overlap. If you’ve been around long enough or have read deeply enough, that should be as shocking as the fact that (if you’re in an English-speaking part of the world) the name of this day ends in “y.” Could the DSP forgo all the core capabilities of DSPM and just deliver the deeper policy and data protection features? If the DSM vendors could be sure that every customer will have DSPM to integrate with, sure. That isn’t always the case. Even if it were, it’s not guaranteed that the politics and process at an organization would make such integration possible even if it is technically possible. Could DSPM simply expand to cover all the depth of DSP including the Data Protection features? The crucial word in there is “simply.” If it were simple they would have done it already.  

It’s sure that you will see consolidation of the market over time with players merging, expanding, and being bought to make suites. Right now, organizations have real-world challenges, and they need solutions despite the overlaps. So DSPM and DSP will stay independent until market forces make it necessary for them to change.  

The overlaps, the similar goals, and the limits of language in describing Data Security Posture Management and Data Security Platforms are the source of the confusion. Hopefully, it’s now clear that DSP is the deeper solution that gives you everything you need to solve problems all the way down to Data Protection. DSPM will continue to add more platforms to grow horizontally. DSP will continue to dive deeply into the platforms they support today and cautiously add new platforms to dive more deeply into as the market needs them to. If you started this a little mad at the Gartners of the world, maybe you now see how they are right to give you two different markets with so much in common. Like with many things in life, if you are confused, it only means you are sane and paying attention. You keep paying attention, and we’ll keep helping you stay sane.