On the heels of our recent launch of Fivetran Business Critical, we are pleased to announce our support of Microsoft Azure as a cloud platform. Fivetran Business Critical is an end-to-end, fully managed and secure data integration platform that provides organizations with the highest level of protection for sensitive data, enabling enterprises and customers of Microsoft Azure to create a secure and compliant modern data stack. 

This new offering will allow joint Fivetran and Azure customers to transform data into faster business insights while maintaining compliance with an array of data security and privacy measures. 

Integrating data without compromising on security and privacy

Findings from a recent IDC survey show almost 60% of enterprises experience loss or leakage of personally identifiable information annually, with nearly half those organizations experiencing it monthly. For large enterprises who are actively migrating or replicating data into the cloud, there are important security-related considerations when it comes to data integration. 

First, role- and policy-based controls are essential to govern, preserve and audit data and associated entitlements. But if these controls are not managed properly, unnecessary complexity and risk are introduced. Second, there are often multiple ETL tools with obfuscated code and integration points that need to be governed. Without proper ownership of data governance, there is greater opportunity for insider threat actors or hackers to exploit data. 

Third, data security and privacy are still afterthoughts despite how sensitive and valuable the data being handled may be. Given the complexity of enterprise data and analytics architectures, the lack of resources, and the urgency around gaining access to new data sources for decision-making, common data privacy concerns include: 

• Meeting data security and data privacy requirements, such as GDPR, CCPA and HIPPA 
• Ensuring company data complies with internal and external data residency requirements
• Securing data as it passes over public networks 
• Reducing data stack complexity and data access needs
  

Similar to technical debt, security debt occurs when organizations do not invest enough money or resources into security efforts upfront. Data architects need a better way to factor these aspects into their data integration strategy to mitigate security debt and potential risks, such as data leakage, data breach and non-compliance with industry regulations. Otherwise, these debts can eventually become a long-term burden that may cost companies millions, if not billions of dollars. 

Bringing the most secure cloud data integration platform to Microsoft Azure 

Considered as the industry’s most secure cloud data integration platform, Fivetran Business Critical allows enterprises with extremely sensitive data to create secure, automated data pipelines into Azure while ensuring compliance requirements are met. This new integration with Microsoft Azure is building upon our news in September announcing our overall integration with the Azure cloud. 

Rohan Kumar, Corporate Vice President of Microsoft Azure Data, had this to say about Fivetran’s Azure integration: 

“As enterprises choose Azure for their data platform, this integration with Fivetran will allow customers to deploy Fivetran data integration services within Azure — particularly with Azure Synapse. We look forward to this continued collaboration between Azure and Fivetran that will accelerate any organization’s ability to transform data into actionable insights.”

Key features of Fivetran Business Critical for Azure include: 

• Azure Private Link: Provides the ability to secure network traffic between Fivetran and Azure using Azure Private Link. Enterprises can avoid passing traffic over the public Internet and eliminate exposure to security threats.‍
• Customer Managed Keys: Business Critical uses a customer-operated KMS system (Azure Key Vault) to hold the master encryption key that Fivetran uses to encrypt credentials and temporary data processed in the service. This enables immediate termination of connector activity by the customer in case of a breach or other security event.
• ‍Cloud Region Support: Easily deploy Fivetran within different geographies and specific regions to meet any data residency requirements.
• PCI DSS Level 1 Validation: PCI DSS Level 1 validation ensures protection for our customers who process credit card and cardholder data. This validation also allows enterprises within the retail, finance and ecommerce industries to meet industry data security and privacy requirements.

At Fivetran, we are continuing to build upon our mission of making access to data as simple and reliable as electricity, and this is yet another step in that direction. Not only can our customers select which cloud platform works best for them, they can also ensure that the data running into and out of any cloud is reliable and secure. Learn more about how you can better secure your data on Azure by checking out Fivetran Business Critical or request a demo.