Nightfall vs. Aware: Looking for an alternative to Aware?

Data governance or data loss prevention: Which is right for you?

Most companies are determined to make remote work feasible for the future. To do so, they need the right tools to maintain data security while their employees work here, there, and everywhere. 

There are many tools on the market that enable cloud security, and understanding which options are right for your business can be confusing. Different vendors offer different features, compliance with different regulations, levels of complexity, and types of coverage. 

[Read more: The Security Playbook for Remote-first Organizations]  

To make it easier to sort through all this noise, this guide will break down the differences between cloud data loss prevention and corporate data governance platforms. We’ll compare Nightfall, a cloud DLP program, with Aware, a collaboration governance platform that makes sense of human behavioral data for enterprise organizations. 

At a glance, here are some of the key differences and similarities between the two providers:

NightfallAwareProductCloud DLPData governanceImplementationVia API across all integrationsVia native APIs and webhooksRemediationAutomated with AIAI-powered dashboardSupportUnique developer platform, plus online supportOnline supportComplianceGDPR, CCPA, HIPAA, and PCI-DSS and more Compliance monitoring across a variety of use cases including regulatory, legal, or internal organizational requirements.Application CoverageSlack, GitHub, Google Drive, Jira, Confluence, Salesforce, Gmail, Fluent Bit, Cribl, Hanzo E-discovery, and any custom app via the Nightfall Developer PlatformSlack, Microsoft Teams, Zoom, Yammer, Workplace from Google, and moreDetectorsPII, PHI, PCI, Secrets, Keys, Credentials, and more within text, messages, images (via OCR), and dozens of file typesBusiness data, trade secrets, credentials, and other sensitive information.

Nightfall and Aware overlap in some features, but offer distinctly different services to their customers. 

What is Aware? 

Aware claims to be the only “enterprise-grade” data governance platform. As a quick refresher, data governance is an approach to managing data during its life cycle — from the moment you generate or collect data to its disposal. 

Aware integrates into popular messaging and collaboration platforms, including Slack, Microsoft Teams, Zoom, Yammer, Workplace from Facebook, and more to address data risks and insider threat, as well as to empower employees by creating more empathetic, flexible, and human-centric workplaces. As such, Aware doesn’t purely focus on data security, but also on employee engagement and productivity.

Aware offers a range of benefits to companies seeking to improve their internal operations. First, the platform provides a way to centralize data on a single platform, removing siloes between teams and remote/hybrid and in-office workers. This empowers IT teams to monitor and manage data risks, scanning for threats. And, Aware can extract insights from employee communications to evaluate sentiment, morale, and and other behavioral insights. 

Aware isn’t a pure data security company; rather, it focuses on empowering fast communication, knowledge sharing, and collaboration. While part of its value proposition focuses on enabling legal and compliance teams to manage risks, Aware targets big enterprises with a comprehensive suite of tools. 

Nightfall: data security made easy

Nightfall is cloud-native data loss prevention that integrates with common, popular cloud programs such as Slack and AWS using APIs. Although Aware includes cloud DLP as part of its monitoring and moderation toolkit, Nightfall is uniquely qualified as an expert in cloud DLP. Nightfall is the industry’s first and only cloud DLP solution that deploys machine learning-trained detectors to automatically scan 150+ types of PII, PHI, PCI, credentials, secrets and more. Security is the primary focus of Nightfall, which automatically scans and monitors for instances where data is shared insecurely. 

Through APIs, Nightfall integrates deeply into cloud applications including Confluence, GitHub, Jira, Slack, Salesforce, Google Drive, and more. Nightfall scans both structured and unstructured data, with the capability to parse text from 100+ file types, including: customer chat logs, JSON objects, application logs, spreadsheets, PDFs, images, screenshots, and more. 

Our platform’s interface makes it easy to customize and configure detections for the data you wish to protect. Nightfall customers are typically up and running within a few minutes. For SaaS apps, there’s no additional configuration or setup required beyond installation — though developers also gain the ability to build their own integrations as needed.

Nightfall is built to help large enterprises not only protect valuable information, but also stay compliant with regimes like HIPAA, GDPR, and CCPA. Perhaps most critically, we provide tools to help coach users on safe and compliant behavior. 

Nightfall has significant funding, operating history, and backing by leadership from Atlassian, Okta, and more; and executive leadership from Uber, Salesforce, Carta, Microsoft, Box, Slack. We provide a dedicated customer success manager, solutions architect, help center, and support.
Learn more about Nightfall’s cloud DLP capabilities by scheduling a call with one of our experts at the link below.