Authorization By Data Classification (ABC)

How do you make sure only the right people in your organization can access sensitive data?

Organizations store more data than ever, from personal records to financial transactions. If this information ends up in the wrong hands, the consequences can be severe.

Managing access in the right way is therefore critical, yet in practice it often becomes overly complex. Rules differ per role or department, employees should not see everything, and permissions are frequently applied manually in a decentralized way. This creates a high maintenance burden and increases the risk of inconsistent authorizations.

With authorization by data classification (ABC), you can replace this complexity with a centralized and automated model. By classifying data, for example as financial, personal or general, at the column, table, schema or system level, access rules are applied consistently and automatically. This reduces maintenance, strengthens security and minimizes the risk of unauthorized access.

A key element of ABC is its metadata-driven approach. Instead of manually setting permissions for every user or dataset, you manage access centrally through metadata that includes the data classifications. Rules are defined once and consistently applied everywhere, making governance far easier to maintain, scalable and consistent across platforms such as Databricks, SQL databases and Power BI.

In this session, I will demonstrate how to put this approach into practice. You will walk away with practical tools to automate governance, simplify compliance and keep your data platform secure and trusted.

- A clear understanding of authorization by data classification and why it simplifies access management - Practical insights into implementing metadata driven, automated governance across data platforms - Concrete tools and approaches to strengthen security while reducing maintenance and compliance effort