NOW Privacy Review

Comprehensive overview and target audience

NOW Privacy, which many will recognize by its former name Exonar Reveal, stands as a powerful data discovery and management platform designed primarily for large organizations grappling with vast amounts of unstructured data. Its core purpose is to illuminate the “dark data” residing across complex IT infrastructures, enabling businesses to understand precisely what information they hold, where it is located, and why it is being kept. This capability is crucial for modern compliance mandates like GDPR, CCPA, and others, making the software indispensable for specific roles.

The target audience for NOW Privacy typically includes:

• Compliance Officers and Data Protection Officers (DPOs) who need visibility into personal and sensitive data to ensure regulatory adherence.
• IT Security Teams seeking to identify and mitigate risks associated with unsecured sensitive information across networks, endpoints, and cloud storage.
• Data Governance Professionals aiming to enforce data retention policies, manage data sprawl, and improve overall information lifecycle management.
• Legal and eDiscovery Teams requiring efficient ways to locate relevant data for investigations or litigation requests.

The platform excels at indexing and analyzing data at scale, providing insights that manual processes simply cannot match. Understanding the NOW Privacy (formerly Exonar Reveal) security features is key; it employs robust mechanisms to ensure data is protected throughout the discovery process and offers features to help organizations secure sensitive findings. Continuous development means users benefit from regular NOW Privacy (formerly Exonar Reveal) updates and new features, keeping the tool aligned with evolving privacy landscapes and technological advancements. These updates often enhance usability, expand data source compatibility, and refine analytical capabilities.

When considering adoption, potential customers often evaluate the NOW Privacy (formerly Exonar Reveal) value for money. While specific costs require direct inquiry, a NOW Privacy (formerly Exonar Reveal) pricing comparison generally positions it as a comprehensive solution for enterprises needing deep data visibility, potentially offering significant return on investment through reduced risk, improved compliance, and operational efficiencies. Furthermore, comprehensive NOW Privacy (formerly Exonar Reveal) support and training resources are available, ensuring teams can effectively deploy and utilize the platform’s full potential. This support structure is vital for maximizing the software’s benefits and navigating its sophisticated features, contributing significantly to its overall value proposition for complex enterprise environments.

User experience and functional capabilities

Delving into the user experience and functional capabilities reveals a platform designed for complex tasks but aiming for clarity. NOW Privacy (formerly Exonar Reveal) user experience insights suggest that while the interface is powerful, navigating its extensive features requires a degree of technical understanding, particularly during initial setup. The dashboard provides a central hub for monitoring data discovery progress, reviewing identified risks, and accessing reports. While generally intuitive for its target technical audience, users new to large scale data discovery might face a learning curve. Understanding how to use NOW Privacy (formerly Exonar Reveal) effectively often involves leveraging the available training resources to grasp the nuances of search query construction and results interpretation.

Functionally, the software excels at its primary mission: indexing vast quantities of structured and unstructured data across diverse sources like file shares, email servers, cloud storage, and databases. Its ability to perform deep content inspection allows for the identification and classification of sensitive data types, including personal identifiers, financial information, and intellectual property. Users can configure sophisticated search criteria and policies to automate the discovery process. Reporting capabilities provide detailed insights into data landscapes, highlighting areas of high risk and supporting compliance documentation requirements. These core functions are central to mitigating data breaches and ensuring regulatory adherence.

The deployment process typically follows a structured approach outlined in the NOW Privacy (formerly Exonar Reveal) implementation guide. This involves setting up connectors to various data sources, configuring indexing parameters, and defining classification policies. However, implementation in large, heterogeneous environments can present challenges. Common problems with NOW Privacy (formerly Exonar Reveal) often relate to initial configuration complexity, managing permissions across diverse systems, and optimizing performance for extremely large datasets. Careful planning and potentially professional services assistance are recommended for seamless deployment. Addressing these initial hurdles is key to unlocking the platform’s full potential.

Recognizing that data governance exists within a broader ecosystem, integrating NOW Privacy (formerly Exonar Reveal) with other tools is a significant capability. It often supports APIs or export functions allowing data insights to flow into security information and event management systems, workflow automation platforms, or data catalogues. This enhances overall visibility and enables coordinated responses to identified risks. Furthermore, the platform benefits from ongoing development. Regular NOW Privacy (formerly Exonar Reveal) updates and new features address emerging data privacy regulations, introduce support for new data sources, refine algorithms, and improve usability based on user feedback, ensuring the tool remains relevant and effective.

To maximize value, adopting certain best practices for using NOW Privacy (formerly Exonar Reveal) is crucial. These include:

• Clearly defining data discovery objectives and scope before initiating scans.
• Establishing robust classification policies tailored to organizational needs and regulatory requirements.
• Regularly reviewing and refining search criteria and policies based on findings and evolving risks.
• Integrating the platform’s outputs into broader data governance and security workflows.
• Providing adequate training to users responsible for operating the platform and interpreting its results.

Following these guidelines helps organizations leverage the platform’s capabilities fully, transforming raw data insights into actionable risk mitigation and compliance strategies.

Who should be using NOW Privacy (formerly Exonar Reveal)

NOW Privacy formerly Exonar Reveal is specifically engineered for organizations facing the substantial challenge of managing vast and complex data estates. Primarily this includes large enterprises operating across multiple jurisdictions or those handling significant volumes of sensitive customer or proprietary information. If your organization struggles with identifying what data it holds where it resides and whether it complies with regulations like GDPR or CCPA then this platform warrants serious consideration.

The ideal users fall into several key professional categories:

• Compliance and Data Protection Officers: These roles require the granular visibility NOW Privacy provides to conduct audits demonstrate regulatory adherence fulfill Data Subject Access Requests accurately and enforce data minimization principles.
• IT Security Professionals: Tasked with protecting organisational assets they leverage the platform to discover unsecured sensitive data across networks endpoints and cloud repositories thereby reducing the attack surface and mitigating breach risks.
• Data Governance Teams: Professionals focused on information lifecycle management use the tool to map data flows enforce retention policies reduce redundant obsolete and trivial data and improve overall data quality and trustworthiness.
• Legal and eDiscovery Specialists: When facing litigation or internal investigations these teams depend on the platform’s powerful search capabilities to efficiently locate and collect relevant information saving time and resources.

A typical NOW Privacy formerly Exonar Reveal use case scenario involves a financial institution needing to rapidly locate all instances of a specific customer’s personal data scattered across email archives shared drives and legacy databases to comply with a GDPR right to erasure request. This highlights the platform’s value in complex real world situations.

Organizations that benefit most are those committed to proactive data risk management and willing to invest in understanding their data landscape deeply. Success relies significantly on implementing and adhering to the Best practices for NOW Privacy formerly Exonar Reveal particularly concerning initial configuration policy definition ongoing refinement and user training. It is less suited for smaller businesses with simpler data environments where manual methods might still suffice.

Unique Features offered by NOW Privacy (formerly Exonar Reveal)

NOW Privacy formerly Exonar Reveal distinguishes itself through significant customization options and unique features designed to meet the specific data discovery and governance needs of large organizations. The platform is not a one size fits all solution; rather it offers flexibility to adapt its powerful capabilities to diverse IT environments and regulatory landscapes. This adaptability ensures that organizations can fine tune the software for maximum effectiveness in identifying and managing sensitive information across their entire data estate.

Key customization possibilities include configuring detailed data connectors for various sources setting specific indexing parameters to optimize performance and relevance and tailoring classification rules precisely to organizational policies and specific compliance mandates like GDPR or CCPA. Users can define custom data types beyond standard templates and create complex search queries using boolean logic and proximity searches to pinpoint niche or highly specific information sets crucial for risk assessment internal investigations or legal discovery. Effectively Customizing NOW Privacy formerly Exonar Reveal for business growth involves leveraging these tailored configurations to streamline compliance workflows reduce data related risks proactively and ultimately support more informed strategic decision making by providing unparalleled visibility into corporate data holdings and associated liabilities.

Several unique features further enhance its value proposition in the data discovery market:

• Massive Scalability: Its underlying architecture is purpose built to handle petabytes of data indexing both structured and unstructured information across vast complex networks cloud storage platforms and endpoint devices without significant performance degradation a critical factor for large enterprises.
• Deep Content Inspection and Contextual Awareness: The platform goes beyond simple metadata analysis or basic keyword matching using sophisticated natural language processing and machine learning techniques to understand the context and true sensitivity of data within files emails databases and other formats This leads to highly accurate classification and reduced false positives.
• Automated Policy Engine: Organizations can configure and automate the enforcement of various data governance policies including data retention schedules minimization rules and security remediation actions based on the discovered data This reduces reliance on manual processes ensures consistent application of rules and helps demonstrate compliance effectively.

Integrating NOW Privacy formerly Exonar Reveal with other tools is another core capability facilitated through robust API support. This allows seamless connection with existing security information and event management systems workflow automation platforms data catalogs and governance dashboards enhancing overall data intelligence within the broader IT and security ecosystem and enabling coordinated response actions to identified risks. While its comprehensive feature set is primarily aimed at large scale environments the suitability of NOW Privacy formerly Exonar Reveal for small businesses is limited due to its enterprise grade power complexity and associated investment typically making it more appropriate for organizations with significant data volumes and complex compliance requirements.

Pain points that NOW Privacy (formerly Exonar Reveal) will help you solve

Many large organizations grapple with significant challenges stemming from the sheer volume and complexity of their data. Uncontrolled data growth often leads to hidden risks compliance failures and operational inefficiencies. NOW Privacy is engineered specifically to address these critical pain points head on providing clarity and control over your enterprise data landscape.

Here are key problems the platform effectively tackles:

• Inability to locate sensitive or personal data: Discovering specific information like customer PII financial records or intellectual property across vast unstructured repositories such as file shares email archives and cloud storage is often a manual time consuming and error prone task. NOW Privacy automates this discovery revealing exactly what data you hold and where.
• Struggles with regulatory compliance: Meeting the stringent demands of regulations like GDPR CCPA and others requires deep visibility into personal data. Fulfilling Data Subject Access Requests DSARs accurately enforcing retention policies and proving compliance become overwhelming without the right tools. NOW Privacy streamlines these processes significantly reducing compliance risks.
• Exposure to data breaches and security risks: Unidentified and unsecured sensitive data scattered across your network represents a major vulnerability. The platform helps security teams pinpoint this high risk information enabling proactive remediation and strengthening your overall security posture.
• Managing “dark data” and data sprawl: Organizations often lack awareness of redundant obsolete or trivial ROT data consuming valuable storage and increasing risk. NOW Privacy illuminates this dark data allowing for informed decisions on deletion archiving or securing it.
• Inefficient eDiscovery and investigations: Locating relevant documents for legal holds litigation or internal investigations can be incredibly resource intensive. The platform accelerates this process through powerful indexed search capabilities saving time and costs.

By addressing these issues NOW Privacy enables better risk management and supports strategic objectives. While the platform’s power is most evident in large complex environments making NOW Privacy (formerly Exonar Reveal) for different businesses sizes primarily geared towards enterprises its core value lies in transforming data chaos into actionable intelligence. Furthermore Integrating NOW Privacy (formerly Exonar Reveal) with other tools like SIEM or workflow platforms extends its value creating a more unified approach to governance and security. Successfully Customizing NOW Privacy (formerly Exonar Reveal) for business growth means leveraging these capabilities not just for compliance but for building a more secure efficient and data aware organization.

Scalability for business growth

Business expansion brings immense opportunities but also significant challenges, particularly concerning data management. As organizations grow, so does the volume, velocity, and variety of their data. This explosion can quickly overwhelm traditional data discovery and governance methods, leading to compliance blind spots, increased security risks, and operational bottlenecks. NOW Privacy directly addresses this challenge with an architecture fundamentally built for scale, ensuring that your data management capabilities evolve seamlessly with your business needs.

The platform is engineered to handle massive data volumes, potentially scaling into petabytes of information spread across complex enterprise environments. This includes diverse data sources such as:

• Network file shares
• Cloud storage platforms
• Email servers
• Databases and data warehouses
• Endpoint devices

Its powerful indexing engine processes both structured and unstructured data efficiently, ensuring that performance does not become a barrier as your data footprint expands. This inherent scalability means NOW Privacy can grow alongside your business, continuously providing the necessary visibility and control over your entire data landscape without requiring disruptive re architecture or sacrificing performance. The system maintains its effectiveness even when confronted with exponentially increasing data loads.

Effective scaling is not just about handling more data; it is about maintaining control and compliance throughout growth. Customizing NOW Privacy (formerly Exonar Reveal) for business growth allows organizations to tailor policies, classification rules, and reporting dashboards to meet evolving regulatory requirements and internal governance standards, even as operations expand globally or into new markets. Properly Customizing NOW Privacy (formerly Exonar Reveal) for business scalability ensures that data discovery processes remain efficient, data subject access request fulfillment stays timely, and risk mitigation efforts keep pace with the increasing complexity. This robust scalability provides the confidence that your data governance framework can support, rather than hinder, strategic business growth initiatives, ensuring long term viability and resilience in a data driven world.

Final Verdict about NOW Privacy (formerly Exonar Reveal)

NOW Privacy formerly Exonar Reveal presents a compelling solution for large organizations navigating the complexities of modern data governance and privacy compliance. Its core strength lies in its powerful ability to index and analyze vast quantities of both structured and unstructured data, effectively illuminating hidden information across intricate IT infrastructures. The platform directly tackles critical pain points such as identifying sensitive personal data, managing dark data sprawl, mitigating security risks associated with unsecured information, and streamlining compliance processes like Data Subject Access Requests under regulations like GDPR and CCPA.

The software demonstrates impressive scalability, designed from the ground up to handle petabyte scale environments without significant performance degradation. This makes it a suitable choice for enterprises experiencing substantial data growth. Furthermore, its deep content inspection capabilities, utilizing sophisticated techniques beyond simple keyword matching, allow for accurate data classification and reduced false positives. Significant customization options enable tailoring discovery processes, policies, and integrations to specific organizational needs and diverse data sources, enhancing its effectiveness.

However, potential adopters should be aware that harnessing this power requires investment. The user experience, while functional, involves a learning curve, particularly during initial setup and configuration within complex environments. Its features and likely pricing structure position it primarily for large enterprises with dedicated compliance, security, and IT teams capable of managing such a robust tool. It is generally less suited for smaller businesses with simpler data landscapes.

Considering its strengths in deep data discovery, scalability, customization, and its focus on solving critical compliance and risk management challenges for large scale operations, our final verdict on NOW Privacy formerly Exonar Reveal is clear. It stands as a highly capable, enterprise grade platform indispensable for organizations needing comprehensive visibility and control over vast, complex data estates to meet regulatory demands and mitigate significant data related risks effectively.