Challenges
A major enterprise faced multiple operational hurdles in handling large volumes of sensitive production data across non-production environments:
- High-volume masking inefficiencies: The growing size of online data sets made the masking process resource-intensive and time-consuming.
- Infrastructure dependency: Setting up a dedicated staging environment for masking required significant capital and resource investments
- Performance degradation: Larger databases led to masking delays, impacting development and testing schedules.
- Operational bottlenecks: Frequent setup and refresh cycles for databases caused delays, with storage limitations creating further challenges during data exports.
Scope of work
The engagement was designed to streamline data masking operations using the Delphix tool and enhance compliance for non-production environments. Key scope items included:
- Provisioning a dedicated service account for the Data Masking Administrator to manage through the masking tool.
- Restoring production data into the staging (DEV/TEST) environment for masking.
- Performing detailed data profiling and masking to create and maintain a Golden Copy for repeated use.
Tools and Technologies
- Delphix
- Oracle / SQL Server databases
- Shell Script
Solution Delivered
- Created and configured staging databases, with automated refreshes from production databases.
- Established and validated credentials for the dedicated service account to ensure smooth tool integration.
- Conducted end-to-end data profiling and masking using the Delphix tool, validating results and generating compliance reports.
- Deployed the masked Golden Copy to non-production environments, enabling secure access for development, testing, and UAT teams.
- Mitigated risks of sensitive data exposure in outsourcing scenarios by ensuring all shared datasets were masked.
- Eliminated the possibility of reverse engineering, reducing the risk of cyberattacks using non-real, yet structurally accurate data.
Business Benefits
Achieved 100% compliance with internal data security and regulatory requirements.
Successfully masked over 200 applications, 5,000 tables, and 10,000+ sensitive data columns across all non-production environments.
Reduced environment setup and refresh times, improving developer and tester productivity.
Minimized storage requirements by reusing the masked Golden Copy across environments.
Strengthened data governance and security posture without impacting operational performance.