Secoda vs Atlan: A comparative study on data compliance features

Why are security and compliance critical in data management?

Security and compliance are essential components of data management, especially in regulated industries. Ensuring data security prevents unauthorized access and protects sensitive information. Compliance with data protection regulations, such as GDPR and CCPA, is mandatory to avoid legal repercussions and maintain trust with stakeholders.

How does Secoda ensure data security and compliance?

Secoda ensures robust data security and compliance through industry-leading policies and technologies:

• Comprehensive security: All connections to Secoda’s web portal are encrypted using HTTPS with TLS v1.2+ and all data at rest is encrypted using AES-256, ensuring data remains secure during transmission and storage. Secoda retains only essential metadata and Secoda product data for functionality and adheres to strict access permissions of least privilege.
• Compliance features: Secoda complies with global data protection regulations like GDPR and CCPA, offering built-in features such as data access approvals, metadata protection, and secure integration with OpenAI’s GDPR-compliant infrastructure for AI functionality. These measures ensure organizations meet regulatory requirements with ease.
• Customer control: Diagnostic data access is only granted with explicit approval for customer support cases and can be revoked at any time. Customers can also request the deletion of all organizational metadata associated with their workspace within 24 hours. This transparency and control empower organizations to maintain their own compliance.
• Physical and environmental safeguards: Secoda leverages AWS’s Private VPC’s and EKS to manage infrastructure, which adheres to  SOC 1/2-3 and ISO 27001 certifications to maintain compliance with physical and environmental security standards, giving customers peace of mind about the safety of their data.
• Sign-in options: Secoda supports multiple login methods, including Microsoft SSO, Google SSO, email, and SAML-based SSO for organizations requiring additional security and customization. Admins can enforce specific SSO types for consistent user access.
• Deployment options: Secoda offers multi-tenant cloud hosting, single-tenant cloud setups with dedicated resources, and self-hosted options (AWS ECS, Docker Compose, or Kubernetes) for complete control over your deployment environment.
• Access management: Secoda includes a built-in system for managing data access requests, enabling administrators to maintain control over who accesses sensitive data and for what purposes.
• Role-based access control (RBAC) and Fine-grained access controls: Secoda enforces granular, team-based permissions, ensuring data access is secure and restricted to authorized users only. This minimizes the risk of unauthorized access and helps reinforce governance policies.
• Data lineage and monitoring: Secoda’s automated data lineage and data quality monitoring capabilities provide full visibility into data flows and quality metrics, ensuring compliance with internal governance standards and external regulatory requirements.

To read more about the particular features in Secoda that encourage strong governance and compliance, check out Secoda vs Atlan: A Comparative Analysis of Data Governance Features.

What security and compliance features does Atlan offer?

Atlan offers a robust suite of security and compliance features designed to safeguard sensitive data, ensure privacy, and support regulatory adherence. These features include:

• Infrastructure security: Atlan is deployed using Kubernetes in an Atlan-managed Virtual Private Cloud (VPC). Security measures cover all levels, including cluster, node, pod, container, network, and code security. Regular vulnerability management, application penetration testing (APT), and event logging through tools like Prometheus, Grafana, Fluent Bit, and Loki ensure a secure and monitored environment.
• Data encryption and privacy: Atlan encrypts all data in transit using SSL and HTTPS. It does not move or store customer data, focusing instead on crawling metadata from data sources and securely persisting only metadata and user data within its VPC. Sensitive fields, such as passwords, are hashed and stored securely.
• Authentication and authorization: Atlan supports Single Sign-On (SSO) using SAML 2.0 with providers like Azure AD, Okta, and Google. It implements role-based access control (RBAC) to grant users the minimum level of access required to perform tasks, adhering to the principle of least privilege.
• Data lineage and metadata storage: Atlan securely stores metadata, including lineage, in Apache Atlas, Elasticsearch, and Cassandra. This ensures data traceability while supporting compliance requirements. Metadata is used to optimize search and user interaction without persisting query results, which are streamed directly from data sources.
• Identity and access management (IAM): Admins can perform user access reviews (UAR) and enforce centralized group and user management. Policies can control actions at a granular level, such as restricting actions on specific assets or enforcing tag-based access controls.
• Auditing and monitoring: Atlan provides audit trails, user access review processes, and compliance reporting to ensure that organizations can monitor and demonstrate regulatory adherence.

How do Secoda and Atlan compare in terms of security and compliance?

Both platforms offer strong security and compliance features, but they differ in approach and focus:

1. Ease of compliance and transparency: Secoda emphasizes user-friendly compliance features like automated data quality monitoring, quick data deletion processes, and secure diagnostic access. These tools simplify adherence to regulatory frameworks like GDPR and CCPA. Atlan, while robust, focuses more on technical elements such as cluster-level security and network access controls, which may require additional configuration.
2. Data access and permissions: Both platforms implement RBAC, but Secoda’s team-based permissions and access management system provide greater flexibility for organizations with varied team structures. Atlan adheres to the principle of least privilege and offers detailed policies but may require more manual effort to manage granular access.
3. Data lineage and monitoring: Both Secoda and Atlan offer automated data lineage capabilities, enabling users to trace data flows effectively. However, Secoda distinguishes itself by providing no-code data quality monitoring features, allowing users to oversee data quality without extensive setup. 
4. Data handling and storage: Atlan emphasizes data security by not storing or caching query results and only persisting metadata. Secoda follows a similar approach but enhances compliance with rapid metadata deletion and customer-controlled diagnostic access.

Which platform is better suited for organizations with specific security and compliance needs?

For organizations prioritizing simplicity, transparency, and comprehensive compliance tools, Secoda may be the better choice due to its automated monitoring, intuitive access controls, and quick data handling processes. Atlan excels in highly technical environments that demand infrastructure-level security measures and granular access policies but may require more manual effort to manage compliance workflows.

The choice ultimately depends on your organization’s specific needs, such as ease of use, team-based workflows, and regulatory requirements.