BigID and Atlan Partner on AI Data Governance
Data security firm BigID and data catalog company Atlan have announced an enhanced integration to create a unified catalog for both structured and unstructured data. The partnership aims to provide a single control plane for companies to manage their data for AI readiness and governance.
The partnership between BigID and Atlan tackles a critical bottleneck in the widespread adoption of AI: data governance. Many AI initiatives stall during the pilot phase due to poor data quality and a lack of clear governance, an issue that becomes more complex as AI models increasingly rely on both structured and unstructured data. This collaboration aims to create a unified view of a company's entire data landscape, which is essential for ensuring data is ready and reliable for AI applications. BigID, founded in 2016, specializes in data discovery and security, using machine learning to identify and protect sensitive information. The company has raised a total of $308 million and was valued at $1.25 billion as of April 2021. Atlan, founded in 2018, provides a metadata and data cataloging platform designed for data and AI governance. Atlan has raised over $206 million and reached a valuation of $750 million in its latest Series C funding round. The technical integration involves BigID's platform discovering and classifying sensitive data across various systems and feeding that metadata into Atlan's data catalog. This allows for automated tagging of high-risk data and alerts for policy violations, such as PII exposure, directly within Atlan's interface. BigID is the first Data Security Posture Management (DSPM) provider to be featured in the Atlan Marketplace. The need for robust AI data governance is growing as companies increasingly deploy AI for business-critical functions. Poor data quality can lead to significant financial losses, with Gartner estimating that it costs organizations an average of $12.9 million annually. As AI models become more complex, the ability to manage and govern the data they are trained on is crucial for avoiding biased outcomes and ensuring regulatory compliance. This partnership reflects a broader industry trend of treating data as a strategic asset, requiring clear ownership and a forward-thinking architecture to unlock the full potential of AI. Without a solid foundation of well-governed data, AI systems risk acting on flawed information, which can undermine both their performance and the trust placed in them. The collaboration between BigID and Atlan aims to provide this foundation, enabling companies to innovate with AI more quickly and safely.
