Domo adds new governance tools to improve data access
With AI applications taking on more business workflows, new capabilities are aimed at enabling system administrators to ensure the appropriate use of data.
SALT LAKE CITY, Utah – Domo on Thursday introduced new governance tools designed to give system administrators greater control over how data is accessed and delivered across their organization.
New capabilities include User Impersonation -- which was highly requested on Domo's Ideas Exchange and enables authorized administrators -- to view and interact with Domo's AI and Data Products Platform as another user, so the administrators can diagnose problems related to a specific user's permissions.
In addition, Domo's new governance features include Nav Configs, allowing administrators to configure navigation experiences for groups within their organization, Native App Distribution, enabling customers to deploy their Domo applications as branded apps in the Apple App Store and Google Play, and Personal Data Permissions within its redesigned Magic ETL feature to add and enforce row-level security as users query and transform data without having to move it.
Collectively, the new governance capabilities are valuable to Domo customers because they better enable administrators to oversee their organization's data estate as more workflows become driven by AI, according to Donald Farmer, founder and principal of TreeHive Strategy.
In effect, they transform administrators from gatekeepers to shopkeepers, he noted.
"I do think this is a useful move -- an essential one really," Farmer said. "As AI-driven workflows and data products proliferate, the administrator's job stops being primarily about access control – gatekeeping -- and becomes about ensuring consistent, predictable data experiences for users, whether you call that shopkeeping or orchestration."
Kevin Petrie, an analyst at BARC U.S., similarly noted the significance of Domo's new governance capabilities.
"These enhancements mark an incremental improvement to governance options for Domo users," he said. "I like how Domo is empowering administrators to broaden their role, encompassing operations, orchestration and governance. Admins have the expertise and authority to infuse governance controls throughout the data lifecycle, which helps set the table for Responsible AI."
I do think this is a useful move -- an essential one really. As AI-driven workflows and data products proliferate, the administrator's job stops being primarily about access control -- gatekeeping --- and becomes about ensuring consistent, predictable data experiences for users.
Donald FarmerFounder and principal, TreeHive Strategy
Domo unveiled the new governance capabilities during Domopalooza, the vendor's annual user conference.
In addition to the governance features, Domo introduced a spate of new tools designed to better enable customers to operationalize their AI initiatives.
Michael Ni, an analyst at Constellation Research, noted that Domo has long provided strong data governance capabilities that are enhanced by the latest additions. Perhaps the most significant new feature for users will be User Impersonation, he continued.
"User Impersonation may sound like an admin feature, but it's foundational for governance at scale," Ni said. "It's no surprise customers ranked it as a top request as it eliminates blind debugging, validates how policies behave in production and gives teams a direct way to quickly troubleshoot access issues."
Petrie, meanwhile, highlighted Personal Data Permissions in Magic ETL as perhaps the most valuable new governance feature for Domo users.
"The global PDP policies, while not rocket science, simplify the implementation and enforcement of governance controls across the enterprise," he said. "This is critical because AI agents and workflows need consistent guardrails to operate safely and efficiently across business functions."
Next steps
As Domo continues to make data and AI governance a focal point, the vendor could better serve its customers by adding support for the Agent2Agent Protocol, an open-source framework developed by Google Cloud that standardizes and simplifies how agents interact with one another.
Domo added a Model Context Protocol server among the features aimed at fostering agentic AI development. Support for A2A would extend MCP, which is an open-source framework for connecting AI applications with data sources, by enabling customers to orchestrate the agents once they are developed and deployed.
"What I would want to see is a genuine A2A coordination layer, with observable, auditable behavior when agents interact -- not just logs, but mechanisms that identify and surface conflicts before they become agentic decisions," Farmer said. "They can do this. I believe they know how and they have the right infrastructure in place."
Petrie, meanwhile, suggested that Domo partner with systems integrators to better enable customers to use Domo as part of the AI transformations.
"Its longstanding experience in the analytics realm gives it valuable knowledge about enterprise decision processes," he said. "I'd recommend that Domo partner more closely with systems integrators and share this knowledge to help customers reshape how they think, plan and act in competitive markets."
Eric Avidon is a senior news writer for Informa TechTarget and a journalist with more than three decades of experience. He covers analytics and data management.
