Get Your Facts Straight: We’ve Had Enterprise-Grade Security Longer

DataStax put out a press release today claiming that with their new release of DataStax Enterprise 3 they were the “World’s First NoSQL Big Data Platform With Comprehensive Enterprise-Grade Security.”

We’d like to set the record straight. MarkLogic has had Enterprise-grade security for well over 10 years. So, while I won’t make the claim that we were first — I certainly won’t accept that DataStax was first either.

Our founder, Christopher Lindblad, wouldn’t have thought to NOT have security from the start. He built the MarkLogic database knowing that government agencies would be eager for the technological advances it provided over relational databases (RDBMS), and having security features that would meet their stringent standards was built-in from the start. Our security features have enabled MarkLogic to be securely deployed throughout the Federal government in defense and civilian agencies, as well as Fortune 500 companies.

What does it mean to have over 10 years of Enterprise-grade security features built into our database platform? Unlike the providers that are just now delivering security, our Government-grade (better than Enterprise-grade), externally-validated security features are completely hardened, tested and proven.

What security features do we have?Internal Authentication – Of course. How does a database not have this?Permission Management – Always had it. Did you know that Cassandra can’t commit a change to permissions and content at the same time? MarkLogic can.Data Auditing – Our auditing capabilities meet the strictest standards expected by regulators, information security experts and risk professionals.Client to Node Encryption – Introduced into MarkLogic more than 4 years ago – the same time Cassandra was first released!External Security Firm Validation – MarkLogic is the only NoSQL database that has been certified under Common Criteria.Transparant Data Encryption – MarkLogic works flawlessly with many encryption systems but those live below the file system. MarkLogic does not implement its own data encryption.Compartment Security – MarkLogic allows you to specify more complex security rules on documents. (No mention of this from DataStax)

Want to read more about our Security features? Check out our MarkLogic Security Guide. Want to talk to our users and experts who have implemented and deployed some of the most secure NoSQL database systems? Come to MarkLogic World in April in Las Vegas and meet them in person.

I’m glad that the other NoSQL vendors are finally waking up to the fact that you can’t go to market with a database that doesn’t have security features built in. I’m not sure how they have the nerve to suggest that their products should be used by corporations, government agencies, or really anybody for that matter.

Shouldn’t we be holding vendors to a standard higher than the standard all of these new-to-market technology providers seem to be held to? They need to be worthy of our trust. Without hardened security features built-in from the start, can you really trust that their database is secure, available and reliable? And if their database isn’t secure, available and reliable, can you trust that your systems are secure, available or reliable? I’ll let you decide.

In the meanwhile, take a look to see who trusts MarkLogic for their secure Big Data applications. And, if you’d like to join their ranks, download MarkLogic Enterprise Edition for free and try it out.