Data Security through Data Masking

Private and confidential customer and company data is often locked in production systems; credit card data, social security numbers, financial, HR data and customer lists are just a few of the fields that need to be secured. The Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act and HIPAA are just the latest in a long line of privacy regulations that will directly impact organizations that fail to secure their corporate data.

Data Masking enacts policy based archiving schemes where specific, sensitive data is masked according to pre-set algorithms before the database is released to the test environment. Data masking helps in protecting data in less secure environments.

Data Masking Techniques

It is a common fact that most database applications store company’s confidential details such as employee information, client information, company’s financial details etc. Most often these details need to be shared with developers and others while providing production support for upgrades, training, outsourcing etc. As a result, there is a great risk of this data being used for unlawful activities.

Data masking provides companies with a centralized solution to manage the test data management process for clone creation, productivity and data security. Data masking helps in protecting data in less secure environments. Secure test and development provides companies with a centralized solution to manage the test data management process for data masking.

The highest quality test information

Test Data Management is a strategy for organizations to manage their test and development processes to meet application development and testing requirements, streamline cloning processes and secure data so organizations are equipped to deliver the clones needed to meet upgrade and patch cycles and maintain data security.

Test Data Management processes are critical to maintaining applications and databases, but creating the necessary clones is a labor intensive activity for any IT department. Multiple clones must be configured and managed across applications, databases, servers, and storage devices, all the while exposing sensitive customer data to potential leaks. With identity theft a growing concern among consumers, regulators and law makers, a strategic approach to test data management is needed.

Steps to clone a database

Data subsettting decreases storage requirements and increases IT productivity by reducing the overall size of the final database clone. Database Administrators and Developers can select sets of transactions or application modules and remove the data through deletion or truncation, or use the more efficient; Insert Method for database cloning.

Database cloning creates a database template and restores or inserts only the transactions or modules needed. The Insert Method for database cloning allows IT organizations to create subsets much faster as only the data needed for the test is cloned, resulting in a faster cloning process and reduced storage requirement. Whichever subset method is used, referential integrity is maintained.

Enterprise needs data archiving solutions

Data that has been relocated after classification is protected from redundant searches or data addition. This helps in maintaining integrity and reduces the strain on database servers. When a quarterly or yearly trend analysis is performed it allows for convenient data purging also. Automation of archiving and purging is available as Data archiving solutions. They can be used by multiple projects at the same time and data retrieval is very convenient.

Enterprise customers running Oracle E-Business Suite, JD Edwards, PeopleSoft, Siebel, Baan and more depend on enterprise applications to run their businesses. Coupled with support for custom applications running on Oracle, IBM, Informix, MS SQL, MySQL or other RDMS with JDBC driver support, Data Archiving solution is the complete solution for all enterprise data archiving needs.

Management needs Data Archiving

Data is the life blood of any organization, but too much data can slow application and reporting performance and tax IT resources. Utilizing database archiving to actively manage the growth of application data is key to managing data for its value to the organization.

Enterprise Database Archiving restores application performance up to 50% by relocating inactive data from your production database to a secure online data archive. Database Archiving automates the archive and purge process by offloading underutilized data from the production environment, ensuring good operational performance during heavy load times such as quarter end.

Improving IT Efficiency with Automated Cloning

Enterprise class business applications require multiple copies be made to support test data management processes such as patch, test, QA, and training. Most companies make 6-8 full size clones for every production application, not only wasting storage and time in cloning but potentially exposing sensitive application data to the test environment. Secure Test and Development provides companies with a centralized solution to manage the test data management process for data clone creation, productivity and data security.

Creating data clones is a labor intensive and manual process where servers, applications and storage devices are configured for each new clone, an inefficient process for a routine data center activity. By automating the cloning and post-cloning processes, clones are created and configured faster and with fewer errors.

A virtualized archive solution to manage data

Data that has been relocated after classification is protected from redundant searches or data addition. This helps in maintaining integrity and reduces the strain on database servers. When a quarterly or yearly trend analysis is performed it allows for convenient data purging also. Automation of archiving and purging is available as Data archiving solutions. They can be used by multiple projects at the same time and data retrieval is very convenient.

Enterprise customers running Oracle E-Business Suite, JD Edwards, PeopleSoft, Siebel, Baan and more depend on enterprise applications to run their businesses. Coupled with support for custom applications running on Oracle, IBM, Informix, MS SQL, MySQL or other RDMS with JDBC driver support, Data Archiving solution is the complete solution for all enterprise data archiving needs.

How to archive data?

Data is the life blood of any organization, but too much data can slow application and reporting performance and tax IT resources. Utilizing database archiving to actively manage the growth of application data is key to managing data for its value to the organization.

Enterprise Database Archiving restores application performance up to 50% by relocating inactive data from your production database to a secure online data archive. Database Archiving automates the archive and purge process by offloading underutilized data from the production environment, ensuring good operational performance during heavy load times such as quarter end.

Data masking tool

Enterprise class business applications require multiple copies be made to support test data management processes such as patch, test, QA, and training. Most companies make 6-8 full size clones for every production application, not only wasting storage and time in cloning but potentially exposing sensitive application data to the test environment. Secure Test and Development provides companies with a centralized solution to manage the test data management process for data masking creation, productivity and data security.

Creating data masking is a labor intensive and manual process where servers, applications and storage devices are configured for each new clone, an inefficient process for a routine data center activity. By automating the cloning and post-cloning processes, clones are created and configured faster and with fewer errors.