Varonis Systems, a software vendor that visualizes and analyzes users’ access privileges to data, rolled out a new version of its software today that adds enhanced search capabilities and scalability, as well as increased reporting and auditing capability.

The company introduced DatAdvantage 3.0 software, which discovers and analyzes user-to-data access and recommends access privileges based on business need rather than arbitrary assignment. DatAdvantage gathers access data on unstructured data -- Word files, spreadsheets, PDF files -- and makes recommendations on data permissions based on user access patterns and behavior.

Varonis says it is difficult to identify who owns data, where that data came from and how users are using it. With DatAdvantage, which peers into Microsoft’s Active Directory, IT administrators can visualize a log record of user access activity. The log will allow IT to conduct an analysis of data access by individual, group, time of day or IP address.

With the new version of DatAdvantage, administrators can search to see all the files a given user has deleted or created.

DatAdvantage also is able with probes or software agents to forward data to the Varonis analytics server. The new release has tripled the number of servers a probe can gather data from.

The new software also features 25 pre-canned reports that detail user access, access to sensitive folders and dashboards that show data utilization statistics for every file server.

The software works with any Windows or Network Appliance file server. The company expects to support Unix file servers later this year. DatAdvantage is priced based on the number of users; licenses for typical installations of one to 250 users start at $25,000.