Aurva

How Aurva Compares to Varonis

Real-Time Data Visibility Without Blind Spots or Overhead.

See the Full Picture, Not Just the Fragments.

Today’s data environments are more complex and interconnected than ever, making it critical to know who is accessing what data, why, and how it’s being used. Without this context, security teams risk missing early warning signs of breaches and misuse, leaving sensitive data exposed.

Traditional, proxy-based tools like Varonis (via Cyral) struggle to capture this context, often adding latency, increasing overhead, and missing real-time insights. In contrast, Aurva uses kernel-level eBPF technology for continuous, high-resolution data visibility, eliminating these blind spots and performance trade-offs.

Real Context, Real Coverage

Aurva offers real-time, context-rich visibility into both machine and human activities, reducing false positives and detecting insider threats, unlike Varonis’s limited, latency-prone approach.

Features

Context Enrichment

Provides deep visibility into both machine and human identities at a granular level, capturing actual user activities.

Primary use-case is monitoring for human identities only and Just-in-time access for them.

AI Powered behavioral detection

Aurva’s advanced AI engine leverages eBPF generated contextual data for precise anomaly detection; reducing false positives and identifying insider threats beyond basic compliance checks.

Just-in-time access is the primary usecase

Future-Ready Data Coverage (including Stored Procedures)

Comprehensive support for modern databases, including vector DBs and AI application-level access.
Comprehensive visibility on Stored procedures and queries executed via the same

Proxy based architecture, not used for production environment due to latency concerns
Lack support for stored procedure tracking

Comprehensive data flow visibility

Aurva completes the data security journey for organizations by combining DSPM capabilities with access monitoring, and data flow tracking across complex environments. This approach not only ensures compliance but also provides a clear view of how data moves within and beyond the organization.

Features

Data Localization

Tracks both internal data storage and external data sharing locations

Focuses on internal data storage only

Performance Impact

eBPF-based monitoring
Zero latency

Proxy-based DAM (via Cyral)
Adds latency

Cloud DLP (Egress Monitoring)

Comprehensive monitoring of all outbound data transfers by analyzing complete network traffic

Not Supported

Data Exfiltration Monitoring

Includes threat intelligence for detecting malicious third parties and suspicious locations

Not supported

Complete Data Flows

Complete visibility into app-to-app interactions, data transfers and third-party connections.

Not Supported

Runtime Security

Real-time view of data flows and access patterns
Includes app-to-app interactions

Limited to CloudTrail/Audit Logs
Proxy support via Cyral only for DB queries

Runtime Classification

Classification of data in motion (runtime)

Not supported

Access Permissions Overview

App-level active access visibility
Identify Overpermissioned Identities & suggest
Granular monitoring for tools like Metabase, Redash, Looker.
IAM roles and policy visibility

IAM roles and policy visibility only

Shadow AI Detection

Real-time tracking of AI data flows, including production environments

Lacks the capability to track runtime AI assets

Real-Time, High-Precision Insight

Capture every query, access, and data interaction without latency, providing continuous, context-rich monitoring for both human and machine identities.

Features

Database Activity Monitoring (DAM)

Enables query-level monitoring for granular insights into both human and non-human identities across data lakes and production DBs

Acquired Cyral for DAM in March’25. Integration yet to happen.

Anomaly detection

Aurva’s advanced AI engine leverages eBPF generated contextual data for precise anomaly detection; reducing false positives and identifying insider threats beyond basic compliance checks.

Static, compliance-driven alerts with minimal context and basic anomaly detection.

Conclusion

Aurva offers a modern approach to data security that goes well beyond traditional DSPM and DAM. With features like zero-latency eBPF-based monitoring, runtime classification, comprehensive egress monitoring, and granular access visibility down to the application and employee level, Aurva provides real-time protection across the full data lifecycle — from classification to usage and sharing.

Aurva doesn’t just provide isolated data asset visibility but extends into comprehensive data flow tracking. This includes application-to-application interactions, stored procedures, and external egress points, ensuring you have a complete understanding of who is accessing what data and why critical for both security and compliance.

Do you have 30 minutes?

We’ll guide you through how Aurva works and why it helps.