Strengthening Data Governance and Security for a Technology Firm

TECHNOLOGY & SOFTWARE

Strengthening Data Governance and Security for a Technology Firm

Centralized data governance with integrated access controls and policy enforcement.

Focus Areas

Data Governance Frameworks

Cloud Security Architecture

Identity and Access Management (IAM)

Data encryption using customer-managed keys (CMKs) integrated with cloud KMS and Vault.

Business Problem

A technology firm delivering AI-driven business analytics platforms was facing growing concerns around data privacy, regulatory compliance, and unauthorized data access. As the company expanded into regulated markets, its decentralized data management practices and inconsistent security configurations became a liability. Leadership needed to establish a comprehensive data governance strategy that ensured security, compliance, and trust—without slowing down innovation.

Key challenges:

  • Uncontrolled Data Access: Excessive permissions and lack of RBAC led to data exposure risks.

  • Siloed Data Policies: Teams maintained disparate security practices across departments and clouds.

  • Lack of Auditability: Data usage and access logs were incomplete or inconsistent.

  • Non-Compliance Risk: Data storage and retention policies did not meet SOC 2, GDPR, or HIPAA standards.

  • Encryption Gaps: Sensitive datasets were not consistently encrypted at rest and in transit.

The Approach

Curate partnered with the technology firm to implement an end-to-end data governance and security framework. The goal was to centralize data controls, improve access visibility, and meet regulatory standards—while maintaining operational agility.

Key components of the solution:

Discovery and Requirements Gathering:

  • Security Posture Assessment: Evaluated current cloud configurations, IAM policies, and encryption standards.

  • Data Inventory and Classification: Identified critical and sensitive data assets across cloud platforms.

  • Compliance Gap Analysis: Compared existing controls against SOC 2, GDPR, and HIPAA requirements.

  • Stakeholder Workshops: Engaged security, legal, and engineering teams to align on policies and objectives.

Solution Design and Implementation:

Centralized Data Governance:

  • Established unified data access policies using AWS Lake Formation and Google Data Catalog.

  • Created data classification tags for PII, financial, and operational datasets.

Access Management & Policy Enforcement:

  • Designed fine-grained role-based access control (RBAC) with automated policy enforcement.

  • Integrated single sign-on (SSO) and multi-factor authentication (MFA) using Okta and Azure AD.

Auditability and Monitoring:

  • Enabled centralized logging of data access using AWS CloudTrail, GCP Audit Logs, and SIEM tools.

  • Deployed GuardDuty and Security Command Center for threat detection and alerting.

Data Encryption and Key Management:

  • Enforced end-to-end encryption using customer-managed keys (CMKs) and KMS across all environments.

  • Integrated Vault for secret rotation, storage, and access control.

Compliance Automation:

  • Implemented automated compliance scanning with tools like Prisma Cloud and Evident.io.

  • Created dashboards and reports for SOC 2, GDPR, and HIPAA audit readiness.

Process Optimization and Change Management:

  • Policy-as-Code: Applied OPA/Gatekeeper to enforce security and governance controls in CI/CD workflows.

  • Data Access Workflows: Built automated approval workflows for accessing sensitive datasets.

  • Training and Awareness: Delivered targeted training sessions on data handling, privacy, and security policies.

  • Incident Response Readiness: Developed breach response playbooks and ran tabletop exercises.

Business Outcomes

Stronger Data Security Controls


Sensitive data was encrypted and access was strictly governed using least-privilege policies.

Compliance-Ready Posture


The firm passed its first SOC 2 Type II audit and achieved GDPR alignment with minimal remediation.

Improved Visibility and Accountability


Centralized audit logs and dashboards provided real-time insights into data access and usage.

Sample KPIs

Here’s a quick summary of the kinds of KPI’s and goals teams were working towards**:

Metric Before After Improvement
Sensitive data encrypted 65% 100% 35% improvement
IAM policy violations 12/month 1/month 92% reduction
Time to provision data access 3 days 1 hour 95% faster
Compliance audit findings (SOC 2) 14 issue 2 issue 86% fewer issues
Unauthorized access incidents/year 6 0 100% elimination
**Disclaimer: The set of KPI’s are for illustration only and do not reference any specific client data or actual results – they have been modified and anonymized to protect confidentiality and avoid disclosing client data.

Customer Value

Security-First Culture


Integrated security and governance without hindering product development.

Future-Ready Governance


The architecture supports future compliance expansions and cross-border data policies.

Sample Skills of Resources

  • Cloud Security Architects: Designed multi-cloud IAM and encryption strategies.

  • Governance Specialists: Implemented classification, lifecycle policies, and compliance automation.

  • DevSecOps Engineers: Integrated policy-as-code and vulnerability scanning into CI/CD.

  • SREs: Operationalized monitoring and alerting for security incidents.

  • Risk & Compliance Analysts: Mapped controls to regulatory frameworks and guided audit readiness.

Tools & Technologies

  • Cloud Platforms: AWS, GCP, Azure

  • IAM & SSO: Okta, Azure AD, AWS IAM

  • Encryption & Secrets: KMS, Vault, AWS Macie

  • Logging & SIEM: CloudTrail, GCP Audit Logs, Splunk

  • Compliance Tools: Prisma Cloud, Drata

  • Policy Enforcement: OPA, Gatekeeper, Terraform Sentinel

Real-time compliance showing automated audit checks and security alerts.

Conclusion

By adopting a robust data governance and security strategy, the technology firm transformed its operations to meet modern privacy standards and compliance requirements. Curate’s approach combined automation, policy enforcement, and real-time visibility to build a secure, audit-ready environment—empowering the business to scale with confidence in data integrity and protection.

All Case Studies

View recent studies below or our entire library of work