Mage Data

Category: Blogs – TDM

  • Healthcare Reinvented: Data Security Meets Compliance

    Healthcare Reinvented: Data Security Meets Compliance

    In today’s healthcare ecosystem, data is both an operational backbone and a compliance challenge. For organizations managing vast networks of primary care centers, protecting patient data while maintaining efficiency is a constant balancing act. As the healthcare industry becomes increasingly data-driven, the need to ensure security, consistency, and compliance across systems has never been more critical.

    Primary care organizations depend on sensitive clinical and claims data sourced from multiple payers. Each source typically arrives in a different format—creating integration hurdles and privacy risks. Manual processing not only slows operations but also increases the chance of human error and non-compliance with data protection mandates such as HIPAA.

    To overcome these challenges, one leading healthcare provider partnered with Mage Data, adopting its Test Data Management (TDM) 2.0 solution. The results transformed the organization’s ability to scale securely, protect patient information, and maintain regulatory confidence while delivering high-quality care to its patients.

    The organization faced multiple, interrelated data challenges typical of large-scale primary care environments:

    • Protecting Patient Privacy: Ensuring HIPAA compliance meant that no sensitive health data could be visible in development or test environments. Traditional anonymization processes were slow and prone to inconsistency.
    • Data Consistency Across Systems: Patient identifiers such as names, IDs, and dates needed to remain accurate and consistent across applications and databases to preserve reporting integrity.
    • Operational Inefficiency: Teams spent valuable time manually processing payer files in multiple formats, introducing risk and slowing development cycles.
    • Scaling with Growth: With over 50 payer file formats and new ones continuously added, the organization struggled to maintain standardization and automation.

    These pain points created a clear need for an automated, compliant, and scalable Test Data Management framework.

    Mage Data implemented its TDM 2.0 solution to address the organization’s end-to-end data management and privacy challenges. The deployment focused on automation, privacy assurance, and operational scalability.

    1. Automated Anonymization

    Mage Data automated the anonymization of all payer files before they entered non-production environments. This ensured that developers and testers never had access to real patient data, while still being able to work with datasets that mirrored production in structure and behavior. The result was full compliance with HIPAA and other healthcare data protection requirements.

    1. NLP-Based Masking for Unstructured Text

    To mitigate the risk of identifiers embedded in free-text fields—such as medical notes or descriptions—Mage Data integrated Natural Language Processing (NLP)-based masking. This advanced capability identified and anonymized hidden personal data, ensuring that no sensitive information was exposed inadvertently.

    1. Dynamic Templates and Continuous Automation

    Mage Data introduced dynamic templates that automatically adapted to new or changing file types from different payers. These templates, combined with continuous automation through scheduled jobs, detected, masked, and routed new files into development systems—quarantining unsupported formats until validated. This approach reduced manual effort, improved accuracy, and allowed the organization to support rapid expansion without re-engineering its data pipelines.

    The adoption of Mage Data’s TDM 2.0 delivered measurable improvements across compliance, efficiency, and operational governance:

    • Regulatory Compliance Assured: The organization successfully eliminated the risk of HIPAA violations in non-production environments.
    • Faster Development Cycles: Developers gained access to compliant, production-like data in hours instead of days—accelerating release cycles and integration efforts.
    • Consistency at Scale: Mage Data ensured that identifiers such as patient names, IDs, and dates remained synchronized across systems, maintaining the accuracy of analytics and reports.
    • Operational Efficiency: Manual discovery and masking processes were replaced by automated, rule-driven workflows—freeing technical teams to focus on higher-value work.
    • Future-Ready Scalability: The solution’s adaptable framework was designed to seamlessly extend to new data formats, applications, and business units as the organization grew nationwide.

    Through this transformation, Mage Data enabled the healthcare provider to turn data protection from a compliance burden into a strategic advantage, empowering its teams to innovate faster while safeguarding patient trust.

    In conclusion, Mage Data delivers a comprehensive, multi-layered data security framework that protects sensitive information throughout its entire lifecycle. The first step begins with data classification and discovery, enabling organizations to locate and identify sensitive data across environments. This is followed by data cataloging and lineage tracking, offering a clear, traceable view of how sensitive data flows across systems. In non-production environments, Mage Data applies static data masking (SDM) to generate realistic yet de-identified datasets, ensuring safe and effective use for testing and development. In production, a Zero Trust model is enforced through dynamic data masking (DDM), database firewalls, and continuous monitoring—providing real-time access control and proactive threat detection. This layered security approach not only supports regulatory compliance with standards such as GDPR, HIPAA, and PCI-DSS but also minimizes risk while preserving data usability. By integrating these capabilities into a unified platform, Mage Data empowers organizations to safeguard their data with confidence—ensuring privacy, compliance, and long-term operational resilience.

  • Reimagining Test Data: Secure-by-Design Database Virtualization

    Reimagining Test Data: Secure-by-Design Database Virtualization

    Enterprises today are operating in an era of unprecedented data velocity and complexity. The demand for rapid software delivery, continuous testing, and seamless data availability has never been greater. At the same time, organizations face growing scrutiny from regulators, customers, and auditors to safeguard sensitive data across every environment—production, test, or development.

    This dual mandate of speed and security is reshaping enterprise data strategies. As hybrid and multi-cloud infrastructures expand, teams struggle to provision synchronized, compliant, and cost-efficient test environments fast enough to keep up with DevOps cycles. The challenge lies not only in how fast data can move, but in how securely it can be replicated, masked, and managed.

    Database virtualization was designed to solve two of the biggest challenges in Test Data Management—time and cost. Instead of creating multiple full physical copies of production databases, virtualization allows teams to provision lightweight, reusable database instances that share a common data image. This drastically reduces storage requirements and accelerates environment creation, enabling developers and QA teams to work in parallel without waiting for lengthy data refresh cycles. By abstracting data from its underlying infrastructure, database virtualization improves agility, simplifies DevOps workflows, and enhances scalability across hybrid and multi-cloud environments. In short, it brings speed and efficiency to an otherwise resource-heavy process—freeing enterprises to innovate faster.

    Database virtualization was introduced to address inefficiencies in provisioning and environment management. It promised faster test data creation by abstracting databases from their underlying infrastructure. But for many enterprises, traditional approaches have failed to evolve alongside modern data governance and privacy demands.

    Typical pain points include:

    • Storage-Heavy Architectures: Conventional virtualization still relies on partial or full data copies, consuming vast amounts of storage.
    • Slow, Manual Refresh Cycles: Database provisioning often depends on DBAs, leading to delays, inconsistent refreshes, and limited automation.
    • Fragmented Data Privacy Controls: Sensitive data frequently leaves production unprotected, exposing organizations to compliance violations.
    • Limited Integration: Many solutions don’t integrate natively with CI/CD or hybrid infrastructures, making automated delivery pipelines cumbersome.
    • Rising Infrastructure Costs: With exponential data growth, managing physical and virtual copies across clouds and data centers drives up operational expenses.

    The result is an environment that might be faster than before—but still insecure, complex, and costly. To thrive in the AI and automation era, enterprises need secure-by-design virtualization that embeds compliance and efficiency at its core.

    Modern data-driven enterprises require database virtualization that does more than accelerate. It must automate security, enforce privacy, and scale seamlessly across any infrastructure—cloud, hybrid, or on-premises.

    This is where Mage Data’s Database Virtualization (DBV) sets a new benchmark. Unlike traditional tools that treat masking and governance as secondary layers, Mage Data Database Virtualization builds them directly into the virtualization process. Every virtual database created is masked, compliant, and policy-governed by default—ensuring that sensitive information never leaves production unprotected.

    Database Virtualization lightweight, flexible architecture enables teams to provision virtual databases in minutes, without duplicating full datasets or requiring specialized hardware. It’s a unified solution that accelerates innovation while maintaining uncompromising data privacy and compliance.

    1. Instant, Secure Provisioning
      Create lightweight, refreshable copies of production databases on demand. Developers and QA teams can access ready-to-use environments instantly, reducing cycle times from days to minutes.
    2. Built-In Data Privacy and Compliance
      Policy-driven masking ensures that sensitive data remains protected during every clone or refresh. Mage Data Database Virtualization is compliance-ready with frameworks like GDPR, HIPAA, and PCI-DSS, ensuring enterprises maintain regulatory integrity across all environments.
    3. Lightweight, Flexible Architecture
      With no proprietary dependencies or hardware requirements, Database Virtualization integrates effortlessly into existing IT ecosystems. It supports on-premises, cloud, and hybrid infrastructures, enabling consistent management across environments.
    4. CI/CD and DevOps Integration
      DBV integrates natively with Jenkins, GitHub Actions, and other automation tools, empowering continuous provisioning within DevOps pipelines.
    5. Cost and Operational Efficiency
      By eliminating full physical copies, enterprises achieve up to 99% storage savings and dramatically reduce infrastructure, cooling, and licensing costs. Automated refreshes and rollbacks further cut
      manual DBA effort.
    6. Time Travel and Branching (Planned)
      Upcoming capabilities will allow enterprises to rewind databases or create parallel branches, enabling faster debugging and parallel testing workflows.

    The AI-driven enterprise depends on speed—but the right kind of speed: one that doesn’t compromise security or compliance. Mage Data Database Virtualization delivers precisely that. By uniting instant provisioning, storage efficiency, and embedded privacy, it transforms database virtualization from a performance tool into a strategic enabler of governance, innovation, and trust.

    As enterprises evolve to meet the demands of accelerating development, they must modernize their entire approach to data handling—adapting for an AI era where agility, accountability, and assurance must coexist seamlessly.

    Mage Data’s Database Virtualization stands out as the foundation for secure digital transformation—enabling enterprises to accelerate innovation while ensuring privacy and compliance by design.

  • Building Trust in AI: Strengthening Data Protection with Mage Data

    Building Trust in AI: Strengthening Data Protection with Mage Data

    Artificial Intelligence is transforming how organizations analyze, process, and leverage data. Yet, with this transformation comes a new level of responsibility. AI systems depend on vast amounts of sensitive information — personal data, intellectual property, and proprietary business assets — all of which must be handled securely and ethically.

    Across industries, organizations are facing a growing challenge: how to innovate responsibly without compromising privacy or compliance. The European Commission’s General-Purpose AI Code of Practice (GPAI Code), developed under the EU AI Act, provides a structured framework for achieving this balance. It defines clear obligations for AI model providers under Articles 53 and 55, focusing on three key pillars — Safety and Security, Copyright Compliance, and Transparency.

    However, implementing these requirements within complex data ecosystems is not simple. Traditional compliance approaches often rely on manual audits, disjointed tools, and lengthy implementation cycles. Enterprises need a scalable, automated, and auditable framework that bridges the gap between regulatory expectations and real-world data management practices.

    Mage Data Solutions provides that bridge. Its unified data protection platform enables organizations to operate compliance efficiently — automating discovery, masking, monitoring, and lifecycle governance — while maintaining data utility and accelerating AI innovation.

    The GPAI Code establishes a practical model for aligning AI system development with responsible data governance. It is centered around three pillars that define how providers must build and manage AI systems.

    1. Safety and Security
      Organizations must assess and mitigate systemic risks, secure AI model parameters through encryption, protect against insider threats, and enforce multi-factor authentication across access points.
    2. Copyright Compliance
      Data sources used in AI training must respect intellectual property rights, including automated compliance with robots.txt directives and digital rights management. Systems must prevent the generation of copyrighted content.
    3. Transparency and Documentation
      Providers must document their data governance frameworks, model training methods, and decision-making logic. This transparency ensures accountability and allows regulators and stakeholders to verify compliance.

    These pillars form the foundation of the EU’s AI governance model. For enterprises, they serve as both a compliance obligation and a blueprint for building AI systems that are ethical, explainable, and secure.

    Mage Data’s platform directly maps its data protection capabilities to the GPAI Code’s requirements, allowing organizations to implement compliance controls across the full AI lifecycle — from data ingestion to production monitoring.

    GPAI Requirement

    Mage Data Capability

    Compliance Outcome

    Safety & Security (Article 53)

    Sensitive Data Discovery

    Automatically identifies and classifies sensitive information across structured and unstructured datasets, ensuring visibility into data sources before training begins.

    Safety & Security (Article 53)

    Static Data Masking (SDM)

    Anonymizes training data using over 60 proven masking techniques, ensuring AI models are trained on de-identified yet fully functional datasets.

    Safety & Security (Article 53)

    Dynamic Data Masking (DDM)

    Enforces real-time, role-based access controls in production systems, aligning with Zero Trust security principles and protecting live data during AI operations.

    Copyright Compliance (Article 55)

    Data Lifecycle Management

    Automates data retention, archival, and deletion processes, ensuring compliance with intellectual property and “right to be forgotten” requirements.

    Transparency & Documentation (Article 55)

    Database Activity Monitoring

    Tracks every access to sensitive data, generates audit-ready logs, and produces compliance reports for regulatory or internal review.

    Transparency & Accountability

    Unified Compliance Dashboard

    Provides centralized oversight for CISOs, compliance teams, and DPOs to manage policies, monitor controls, and evidence compliance in real time.

    By aligning these modules to the AI Code’s compliance pillars, Mage Data helps enterprises demonstrate accountability, ensure privacy, and maintain operational efficiency.

    Mage Data enables enterprises to transform data protection from a compliance requirement into a strategic capability. The platform’s architecture supports high-scale, multi-environment deployments while maintaining governance consistency across systems.

    Key advantages include:

    • Accelerated Compliance: Achieve AI Act alignment faster than traditional, fragmented methods.
    • Integrated Governance: Replace multiple point solutions with a unified, policy-driven platform.
    • Reduced Risk: Automated workflows minimize human error and prevent data exposure.
    • Proven Scalability: Secures over 2.5 billion data rows and processes millions of sensitive transactions daily.
    • Regulatory Readiness: Preconfigured for GDPR, CCPA, HIPAA, PCI-DSS, and EU AI Act compliance.

    This integrated approach enables security and compliance leaders to build AI systems that are both trustworthy and operationally efficient — ensuring every stage of the data lifecycle is protected and auditable.

    Mage Data provides a clear, step-by-step plan:

    This structured approach takes the guesswork out of compliance and ensures organizations are always audit-ready

    The deadlines for AI Act compliance are approaching quickly. Delaying compliance not only increases costs but also exposes organizations to risks such as:

    • Regulatory penalties that impact global revenue.
    • Data breaches harm brand trust.
    • Missed opportunities, as competitors who comply early gain a reputation for trustworthy, responsible AI.

    By starting today, enterprises can turn compliance from a burden into a competitive advantage.

    The General-Purpose AI Code of Practice sets high standards but meeting them doesn’t have to be slow or costly. With Mage Data’s proven platform, organizations can achieve compliance in weeks, not years — all while protecting sensitive data, reducing risks, and supporting innovation.

    AI is the future. With Mage Data, enterprises can embrace it responsibly, securely, and confidently.

    Ready to get started? Contact Mage Data for a free compliance assessment and see how we can help your organization stay ahead of the curve.

  • Revolutionizing Core Banking with AI Agent–Driven Test Data Generation

    Revolutionizing Core Banking with AI Agent–Driven Test Data Generation

    It’s 9:15 AM on a critical Wednesday. Your team needs to validate a new interest calculation module before a Friday compliance deadline. This requires complex mortgage test scenarios with specific rate adjustment histories – and of course, using real customer data isn’t an option.

    In the past, this situation might have triggered days of scrambling, manual data anonymization, and compromised testing. But at XYZ bank, it now unfolds very differently:

    QA Lead to DevOps Engineering AI Agent: “I need a test environment with at least 50 jumbo ARM loans that have recently experienced a rate adjustment. We need to validate the new interest calculation module against these scenarios”

    Within minutes, an orchestrated team of AI agents begin collaborating:

    Test Data Orchestrator Agent: “I’ll coordinate creation of a targeted test dataset. What anonymization level Is required for this testing?”

    DevOps Engineer Agent: “Standard PII anonymization with preservation of loan terms and payment history. Focus on interest adjustment patterns rather than customer profiles.”

    Test Data Orchestrator Agent to TDM Agent: “Create a focused test dataset for interest calculation validation. We need 50+ jumbo ARM loans with recent rate adjustments. Standard PII anonymization required with preservation of all financial attributes affecting interest calculation.”

    When an edge case is discovered, the agents adapt:

    TDM Agent: “I’ve identified the needed loan scenarios, but some have unusual structuring with multiple linked accounts. Should I include these complex structures or focus only on standard ARM loans?”

    Test Data Orchestrator Agent: “Include the complex structures as they’re important edge cases for testing. Ensure account linkages are preserved in the anonymized dataset.”

    Less than two hours later – a process that once took days – the QA team receives a fully compliant, perfectly structured test environment:

    DevOps Engineer Agent to QA Lead: “Your test environment has been created with 64 jumbo ARM loans matching your specifications. All necessary financial attributes are preserved while customer data is fully anonymized. Environment URL and access credentials have been shared over email.”

    This isn’t science fiction. This is how our TDM Agent technology is transforming test data management for financial institutions – and it is revolutionizing their ability to develop and deliver banking services at a faster pace than their competitors.

    Core banking modernization initiatives face a persistent struggle: development teams need production-quality data to ensure thorough testing, but using actual customer data creates significant compliance and security risks. Traditional approaches to this challenge fall short:

    • Manual data anonymization is labor-intensive, error-prone, and often results in data that no longer reflects real-world scenarios
    • Synthetic data generation frequently misses edge cases and complex relationships crucial for banking applications
    • Static test data becomes stale and fails to represent changing production patterns

    Mage Data’s TDM Agent was developed to address these critical banking industry challenges. Our clients no longer need to wait for weeks for test environment or compromise on data quality to maintain compliance.

    Mage Data has created a collaborative ecosystem of specialized AI Agents that work together to create perfect test environments. At the center of this ecosystem is our TDM Agent, which provides advanced privacy and data transformation capabilities that integrate seamlessly with existing banking systems.

    Mage Data’s agent ecosystem is architected to balance specialization with seamless collaboration. The TDM Agent sits at the center of the environment creation process, with other agents aiding it:

    1. DevOps Engineer Agent interfaces with human engineers and translates business requirements into technical specifications
    2. Test Data Orchestrator Agent coordinates the overall workflow and manages communication between specialized agents
    3. TDM Agent provides the critical privacy and data transformation capabilities at the core of the solution
      1. Analyze the production database schema to identify sensitive data points
      2. Subsetting the data to include representative examples of all loan types and statuses
      3. Applying sophisticated anonymization across related tables while preserving business rules
      4. Generating synthetic transactions where needed to fill gaps in history
    4. Data Modeling Agent verifies data integrity, relationships and business rule preservation
    5. Compliance Auditor Agent ensures all processes adhere to strict regulatory requirements
    6. Test Automation Agent validates the final environment against functional requirements

    This agent ecosystem replaces traditionally siloed processed with fluid, coordinated action focused on delivering perfect testing environments.

    For Testing Owners
    • Comprehensive scenario coverage with all edge cases represented
    • Consistent test data across development, QA and UAT environments
    • On-demand environment refreshes in hours rather than days or weeks
    • Self-service capabilities for testing teams who need specialized data scenarios
    For Data Privacy Officers
    • Zero exposure of PII in any test environment
    • Detailed audit trail of all anonymization techniques applied
    • Consistent policy enforcement across all applications and environments
    For AI Implementation Teams

    For banks building their AI capabilities, Mage Data’s ecosystem represents an architectural pattern that they can deploy across other functions:

    • Decentralized Intelligence with specialized agents for specific tasks
    • Extensible architecture where new capabilities can be added as agents
    • Standardized collaboration using the Agent2Agent protocol
    • Human-in-the-loop options for exception handling and approvals

    Banking technology leaders stand at a crossroads – continue with traditional, labor-intensive test data approaches that slow innovation, or embrace an AI-powered, privacy-first TDM solution that accelerates development while enhancing compliance.

    1. Assess your current test data challenge – Quantify the time spent creating test environments and any privacy near-misses or incidents
    2. Identify a high-value pilot application – Look for areas where test data quality directly impacts customer experience or compliance
    3. Engage cross-functional stakeholders – Bring together testing, privacy, development, and compliance leaders
    4. Run a pilot of the TDM Agent – See Mage Data’s agent ecosystem in action in a banking specific scenario

    In today’s banking landscape, the competitive edge belongs to institutions that can innovate rapidly while maintaining impeccable data privacy standards. Mage Data’s TDM Agent technology isn’t just an IT solution – it is a strategic business capability that delivers measurable advantages in speed, quality, and compliance

  • Securing SAP: Why Data Protection Matters Now

    Securing SAP: Why Data Protection Matters Now

    Introduction

    SAP systems serve as the operational core for global enterprises, processing an astounding $87 trillion in financial transactions annually across more than 230,000 customers worldwide. This foundational role in the global economy makes these systems exceptionally attractive targets for sophisticated cyber adversaries. Yet despite their critical importance, many organizations continue to operate under the dangerous misconception that commercial ERP solutions like SAP are inherently secure “by default.”

    The stark reality tells a different story. The average cost of an ERP security breach has surged to over $5.2 million, representing a significant 23% increase from previous years. More alarming still, ransomware incidents specifically targeting compromised SAP systems have increased by 400% since 2021. With 52% of organizations confirming a breach in the past year and 70% experiencing at least one significant cyber attack in 2024, the question is no longer if your SAP environment will be targeted, but when—and whether you’ll be prepared.

    The Escalating SAP Security Challenge: Problems Demanding Strategic Solutions

    • Challenge 1: Comprehensive Sensitive Data Discovery Across Complex SAP Landscapes
      The Problem: Organizations struggle to identify where sensitive data resides within their vast SAP ecosystems. Research reveals that 31% of organizations lack the necessary tools to identify their riskiest data sources, with an additional 12% uncertain about their capabilities. This visibility gap becomes critical when considering that SAP environments often contain hundreds of database tables with thousands of columns housing personally identifiable information (PII), financial data, and other regulated information.

      Mage Data’s Solution: Mage Data’s Sensitive Data Discovery module provides intelligent, AI-powered Discovery specifically designed for SAP environments. The platform supports over 80 out-of-the-box data classifications covering names, social security numbers, addresses, emails, phone numbers, financial records, and health data. For SAP-specific deployments, Sensitive Data Discovery automatically discovers sensitive data across SAP ECC, S/4HANA, and RISE environments, supporting popular SAP databases including HANA, Oracle, and SQL Server. The solution goes beyond basic pattern matching, utilizing Natural Language Processing (NLP) and deterministic scoring mechanisms to minimize false positives – achieving a 95% reduction in investigative columns between discovery iterations.

    • Challenge 2: Production Data Exposure in Non-Production Environments
      The Problem: Development, testing, and analytics teams require realistic data to ensure application functionality, yet using production data in these environments creates substantial compliance and security risks. Traditional approaches often result in either unusable synthetic data or dangerous exposure of sensitive information across multiple environments.

      Mage Data’s Solution: With Mage’s comprehensive Static Data Masking capabilities addresses this challenge with over 60 anonymization algorithms including Masking, Encryption, and Tokenization. For SAP environments specifically, the platform maintains referential integrity across SAP modules and relational structures while offering context-preserving masking and Format-Preserving Encryption (FPE). The solution supports in-place, in-transit, as-it-happens, and REST API-based anonymization approaches, allowing organizations to choose the optimal method for their SAP architecture. Customer success stories demonstrate the platform’s enterprise scalability—one implementation protected 2.6 terabytes of data across 264 tables with 6,425 columns and over 1.6 billion rows in just 29 hours.

    • Challenge 3: Real-Time Production Data Protection Without Performance Impact
      The Problem: Protecting sensitive data in production SAP environments requires sophisticated access controls that don’t disrupt business operations. Traditional proxy-based approaches introduce security vulnerabilities and performance bottlenecks, while static solutions fail to provide the granular, role-based access control needed for complex SAP user hierarchies.

      Mage Data’s Solution: Mage’s Dynamic Data Masking module offers six different deployment approaches for production SAP environments: embedded in database, database via proxy, application via database masking, application via API, application via REST API, and application via web proxy. This flexibility ensures seamless integration regardless of SAP architecture. The platform provides real-time, role-based masking directly at both the SAP database layer and application/UI layer across SAP GUI, SAP Fiori, and SAP UI5-based applications. With over 70 anonymization methods available, organizations can implement the optimal balance between security, performance, and data usability while maintaining consistent protection across their entire SAP landscape.

    • Challenge 4: Third-Party Risk and Supply Chain Vulnerabilities
      The Problem: A staggering 63% of all data breaches in 2024 involved vendors, making third-party risk management a critical concern for SAP environments. The interconnected nature of modern SAP deployments, with extensive integrations to external applications and service providers, creates multiple potential entry points for attackers.

      Mage Data’s Solution:       Mage’s centrally managed, platform-agnostic approach ensures consistent data masking protection across all data repositories and environments, whether on-premises or cloud-hosted. The distributed agent architecture enables protection to be applied anywhere in the data flow while maintaining centralized policy management. This capability is particularly crucial for SAP RISE environments and hybrid cloud deployments where data flows across multiple vendor boundaries. The unified platform approach reduces the complexity that comes from managing multiple disparate security tools—addressing the challenge faced by 54% of organizations that currently use four or more tools for data risk management.
    • Challenge 5: Regulatory Compliance and Audit Readiness

      The Problem: Global data privacy regulations continue to intensify, with GDPR fines alone surpassing €4.5 billion since 2018. CPRA penalties for intentional violations will increase to $7,500 per violation in 2025, while the annual revenue threshold for compliance has been lowered to $25 million. Organizations struggle with fragmented compliance approaches and lack integrated visibility into their data protection posture.

      Mage Data’s Solution: Mage provides pre-configured Data Masking templates specifically designed to comply with GDPR, CPRA, HIPAA, PCI-DSS, and other industry-specific regulations. The platform’s unified architecture provides a single pane of glass for managing discovery, classification, masking policies, access control, and monitoring across SAP and non-SAP systems. The integrated approach extends from sensitive data discovery through data lifecycle management, including automated data retirement capabilities through Data Retirement for inactive sensitive data. This comprehensive coverage ensures organizations can demonstrate compliance readiness and respond effectively to regulatory inquiries or audits.

    What Makes Mage Data’s SAP Protection Unique

    Research demonstrates that organizations implementing specialized third-party SAP security tools experience 42% fewer successful attacks compared to those relying solely on native capabilities. Mage Data’s differentiation lies in its comprehensive, integrated approach that addresses the complete data protection lifecycle within SAP environments.
    Unlike point solutions that address individual aspects of data security, Mage provides a unified platform that seamlessly integrates discovery, masking, monitoring, and compliance across both production and non-production SAP environments. The platform’s distributed agent architecture ensures that sensitive data never leaves the target environment during protection processes, while centralized policy management maintains consistency across complex hybrid SAP deployments.
    Mage’s deep SAP expertise is evident in its support for the full spectrum of SAP environments—from legacy ECC systems to modern S/4HANA and cloud-based RISE deployments. The platform’s ability to provide both database-level and application-level protection ensures comprehensive coverage regardless of how users access SAP data, whether through traditional SAP GUI, modern Fiori interfaces, or custom applications.
    The platform’s scalability has been proven in enterprise environments processing terabytes of data across thousands of tables and millions of records, with performance optimizations that minimize impact on critical business operations. This combination of comprehensive functionality, proven scalability, and SAP-specific expertise positions Mage Data as the strategic partner for organizations serious about protecting their SAP investments.

    Conclusion

    In conclusion, Mage Data delivers a comprehensive, multi-layered data security framework that protects sensitive information throughout its entire lifecycle. The first step begins with data classification and discovery, enabling organizations to locate and identify sensitive data across environments. This is followed by data cataloging and lineage tracking, offering a clear, traceable view of how sensitive data flows across systems.
    In non-production environments, Mage Data applies static data masking (SDM) to generate realistic yet de-identified datasets, ensuring safe and effective use for testing and development. In production, a Zero Trust model is enforced through dynamic data masking (DDM), database firewalls, and continuous monitoring—providing real-time access control and proactive threat detection.
    This layered security approach not only supports regulatory compliance with standards such as GDPR, HIPAA, and PCI-DSS but also minimizes risk while preserving data usability. By integrating these capabilities into a unified platform, Mage Data empowers organizations to safeguard their data with confidence—ensuring privacy, compliance, and long-term operational resilience.

    Contact us to schedule a personalized demo of Mage’s SAP Data Protection platform and discover how we can help secure your organization’s most critical data assets.

    • Mage Data’s Solution: Mage’s centrally managed, platform-agnostic approach ensures consistent data masking protection across all data repositories and environments, whether on-premises or cloud-hosted. The distributed agent architecture enables protection to be applied anywhere in the data flow while maintaining centralized policy management. This capability is particularly crucial for SAP RISE environments and hybrid cloud deployments where data flows across multiple vendor boundaries. The unified platform approach reduces the complexity that comes from managing multiple disparate security tools—addressing the challenge faced by 54% of organizations that currently use four or more tools for data risk management.

  • TDM 2.0 vs. TDM 1.0: What’s Changed?

    TDM 2.0 vs. TDM 1.0: What’s Changed?

    As digital transformation continues to evolve, test data management (TDM) plays a key role in ensuring data security, compliance, and efficiency. TDM 2.0 introduces significant improvements over TDM 1.0, building on its strengths while incorporating modern, cloud-native technologies. These advancements enhance scalability, integration, and user experience, making TDM 2.0 a more agile and accessible solution. With a focus on self-service capabilities and an intuitive conversational UI, this next-generation approach streamlines test data management, delivering notable improvements in efficiency and performance. 

    Foundation & Scalability  

    Understanding the evolution from TDM 1.0 to TDM 2.0 highlights key improvements in technology and scalability. These enhancements address past limitations and align with modern business needs. 

    Modern Tech Stack vs. Legacy Constraints 
    TDM 1.0 relied on traditional systems that, while reliable, were often constrained by expensive licensing and limited scalability. TDM 2.0 shifts to a cloud-native approach, reducing costs and increasing flexibility.
    • Eliminates reliance on costly database licenses, optimizing resource allocation. 
    • Enables seamless scalability through cloud-native architecture. 
    • Improves performance by facilitating faster updates and alignment with industry standards. 

    This transition ensures that TDM 2.0 is well-equipped to support evolving digital data management needs. 

    Enterprise-Grade Scalability vs. Deployment Bottlenecks 

    Deployment in TDM 1.0 was time-consuming, making it difficult to scale or update efficiently. TDM 2.0 addresses these challenges with modern deployment practices: 

    1. Containerization – Uses Docker for efficient, isolated environments. 
    2. Kubernetes Integration – Supports seamless scaling across distributed systems. 
    3. Automated Deployments – Reduces manual effort, minimizing errors and accelerating rollouts. 

    With these improvements, organizations can deploy updates faster and manage resources more effectively. 

    Ease of Use & Automation  

    User experience is a priority in TDM 2.0, making the platform more intuitive and less dependent on IT support. 

    Conversational UI vs. Complex Navigation 

    TDM 1.0 required multiple steps for simple tasks, creating a steep learning curve. TDM 2.0 simplifies interactions with a conversational UI: 

    • Allows users to create test data and define policies with natural language commands. 
    • Reduces training time, enabling quicker adoption. 
    • Streamlines navigation, making data management more accessible. 

    This user-friendly approach improves efficiency and overall satisfaction. 

    Self-Service Friendly vs. High IT Dependency 

    TDM 2.0 reduces IT reliance by enabling self-service capabilities: 

    1. Users can manage test data independently, freeing IT teams for strategic work. 
    2. Integrated automation tools support customized workflows. 
    Developer-Ready vs. No Test Data Generation  

    A user-friendly interface allows non-technical users to perform complex tasks with ease. These features improve productivity and accelerate project timelines. 

    Data Coverage & Security  

    Comprehensive data support and strong security measures are essential in test data management. TDM 2.0 expands these capabilities significantly. 

    Modern Data Ready vs. Limited Coverage 

    TDM 1.0 had limited compatibility with modern databases. TDM 2.0 addresses this by: 

    • Supporting both on-premise and cloud-based data storage. 
    • Integrating with cloud data warehouses. 
    • Accommodating structured and unstructured data. 

    This broad compatibility allows organizations to manage data more effectively. 

    Secure Data Provisioning with EML vs. In-Place Masking Only 

    TDM 2.0 introduces EML (Extract-Mask-Load) pipelines, offering more flexible and secure data provisioning: 

    • Secure data movement across different storage systems. 
    • Policy-driven data subsetting for optimized security. 
    • Real-time file monitoring for proactive data protection. 

    These enhancements ensure stronger data security and compliance. 

    Governance & Integration  

    Effective data governance and integration are key strengths of TDM 2.0, helping organizations maintain oversight and connectivity. 

    Built-in Data Catalog vs. Limited Metadata Management 

    TDM 2.0 improves data governance by providing a built-in data catalog: 

    1. Centralizes metadata management for easier governance. 
    2. Visualizes data lineage for better transparency. 
    3. Supports integration with existing cataloging tools. 

    This centralized approach improves data oversight and compliance. 

    API-First Approach vs. Limited API Support 

    TDM 2.0 enhances integration with an API-first approach: 

    • Connects with third-party tools, including data catalogs and security solutions. 
    • Supports single sign-on (SSO) for improved security. 
    • Ensures compatibility with various tokenization tools. 

    This flexibility allows organizations to integrate TDM 2.0 seamlessly with their existing and future technologies. 

    Future-Ready Capabilities  

    Organizations need solutions that not only meet current demands but also prepare them for future challenges. TDM 2.0 incorporates key future-ready capabilities. 

    GenAI-Ready vs. No AI/ML Support 

    Unlike TDM 1.0, which lacked AI support, TDM 2.0 integrates with AI and GenAI tools: 

    • Ensures data protection in AI training datasets. 
    • Prevents unauthorized data access. 
    • Supports AI-driven environments for innovative applications. 

    These capabilities position TDM 2.0 as a forward-thinking solution. 

    Future-Ready Capabilities 

    TDM 2.0 is built to handle future demands with: 

    1. Scalability to accommodate growing data volumes. 
    2. Flexibility to adapt to new regulations and compliance requirements. 
    3. Integration capabilities for emerging technologies. 

    By anticipating future challenges, TDM 2.0 helps organizations stay agile and ready for evolving data management needs.

  • Protecting Sensitive Data in Indian Insurance with Mage Data

    Protecting Sensitive Data in Indian Insurance with Mage Data

    In today’s digital landscape, Indian insurance companies face unprecedented challenges in managing sensitive customer data. With increasing regulatory scrutiny, sophisticated cyber threats, and the digitization of insurance processes, protecting sensitive information has become both a compliance necessity and a competitive advantage. This blog explores the unique data security challenges facing the Indian insurance sector and how comprehensive solutions like Mage Data can help mitigate these risks while enabling business growth.

    The Data Security Landscape in Indian Insurance

    Indian insurance companies handle vast amounts of sensitive personal and financial information, including:

    • Personal identifiable information (PII) such as names, addresses, and contact details
    • Financial information including bank account details and payment histories
    • Health records containing sensitive medical information
    • Family information used for life insurance and beneficiary designations
    • Claims history and risk assessment data

    This wealth of sensitive data makes insurance companies prime targets for cybercriminals. Additionally, as the sector undergoes rapid digital transformation, traditional security controls are struggling to keep pace with new vulnerabilities introduced by mobile apps, cloud migrations, and digital customer interfaces

    Key Challenges in Insurance Data Security

    • Regulatory Compliance Pressures
      Similar to the banking sector, insurance companies in India face mounting regulatory requirements. The Personal Data Protection Bill, IRDAI guidelines, and global standards like GDPR (for international operations) require comprehensive data protection measures. According to Economic Times reporting, compliance costs are rising significantly, with operational expenses increasing by approximately 20% in recent fiscal periods.

    • Test Data Management Issues
      Insurance applications require extensive testing before deployment, but using real customer data in testing environments creates significant security risks. Without proper test data management, sensitive information can be exposed to developers, testers, and third-party vendors who don’t require access to actual customer data.

    • Cross-Border Data Sharing
      Many insurance companies operate globally or work with international reinsurers, requiring secure methods for sharing data across borders while complying with both Indian and international data regulations.

    • Legacy System Integration
      The insurance sector often relies on legacy systems that weren’t designed with modern security requirements in mind. Integrating these systems with newer technologies while maintaining data security presents significant challenges.

    • Third-Party Risk Management
      Insurance companies frequently share data with third parties including agents, brokers, healthcare providers, and service vendors, expanding the potential attack surface for data breaches.

    The Business Impact of Data Security Failures 

    The consequences of inadequate data security in insurance can be severe:

    • Regulatory Penalties: Non-compliance with data protection regulations can result in significant financial penalties.
    • Reputational Damage: Data breaches can severely damage customer trust in an industry where trust is paramount.
    • Operational Disruption: Security incidents can disrupt business operations and lead to significant recovery costs.
    • Competitive Disadvantage: Insurers who cannot demonstrate robust data security may lose business to more secure competitors.

    How Mage Data’s Solutions Address These Challenges

    Mage Data offers a comprehensive suite of data security solutions specifically designed to address the challenges facing Indian insurance companies:

    1. Automated Sensitive Data Discovery

    Mage Data’s AI-powered Sensitive Data Discovery solution can scan across all data sources in an insurance environment, identifying where sensitive information is stored, who has access to it, and how it’s being used. This eliminates the need for time-consuming manual data classification and provides a complete picture of the data security landscape.

    2. Comprehensive Data Protection

    With both Static and Dynamic Data Masking capabilities, Mage Data provides a unified approach to protecting sensitive insurance data across production and non-production environments:

    • Static Data Masking: Creates safe, realistic test data by replacing sensitive information in non-production environments while maintaining referential integrity – crucial for accurate application testing.
    • Dynamic Data Masking: Enables real-time masking of sensitive data based on user roles and access rights, allowing different stakeholders to view only the data they need to perform their functions.
    3. Secure Test Data Management

    Mage Data’s Test Data Management 2.0 platform provides insurance companies with:

    • Self-service provisioning of anonymized test data
    • Intelligent subsetting to create smaller, more manageable test data sets
    • Maintenance of data relationships and referential integrity for accurate testing
    • Automated pipelines for refreshing test environments with protected data
    4. Cross-Border Data Protection

    Mage Data enables secure sharing of insurance data across borders through:

    • Format-preserving encryption and tokenization that protects data while maintaining its usability
    • Consistent application of data protection policies across all locations and systems
    • Secure file gateways that automatically protect sensitive files as they are shared
    5. Data Retirement

    The Data Retirement module helps insurance companies implement data minimization strategies, reducing the costs and risks associated with maintaining inactive sensitive data – particularly important as regulators focus more on data lifecycle management.

    6. Real-Time Monitoring and Alerts

    With Database Activity Monitoring, insurance companies can implement focused monitoring of sensitive data access, ensuring compliance with regulatory requirements while minimizing operational overhead.

    Key Differentiators of Mage Data’s Approach

    What sets Mage Data apart in addressing insurance data security challenges:

    1. Conversational User Interface

    Mage Data’s industry-first conversational interface enables faster adoption across the organization, allowing both technical and non-technical users to leverage data security capabilities without extensive training.

    2. Context-Preserving Protection

    Unlike basic security solutions, Mage Data maintains the context and relationships in protected data, ensuring that insurance-specific data patterns and relationships remain intact and usable for analytics, testing, and operations.

    3. Enterprise-Wide Coverage

    Mage Data protects sensitive information across the entire data lifecycle – at rest, in transit, and even when used in generative AI applications – providing comprehensive coverage across all insurance data environments.

    4. Secure File Gateways

    Automated monitoring of file repositories ensures that sensitive insurance documents are automatically detected and protected as they are created or moved between systems.

    5. Logs Masking

    Protects sensitive fields in application logs – crucial for securing diagnostic information while allowing IT teams to troubleshoot issues effectively.

    The ROI of Implementing Mage Data Solutions

    Implementing Mage Data’s solutions can deliver significant returns for insurance companies:

    • Reduced Compliance Costs: Automation of data security and compliance processes reduces manual effort and associated costs.
    • Enhanced Operational Efficiency: Self-service capabilities and automated pipelines accelerate development and testing cycles.
    • Minimized Breach Risk: Comprehensive protection reduces the likelihood and potential impact of data breaches.
    • Competitive Advantage: The ability to demonstrate robust data security can be a differentiator in the insurance market.

    Conclusion

    As Indian insurance companies navigate an increasingly complex data security landscape, comprehensive solutions like Mage Data offer a path forward that balances security, compliance, and operational efficiency. By implementing automated discovery, protection, and monitoring capabilities, insurers can not only mitigate risks but also position themselves for success in a digital future where data security is a foundation of customer trust.

    The time to act is now. With regulatory pressure continuing to mount and cyber threats becoming more sophisticated, insurance companies that proactively address data security challenges will be better positioned to thrive in a competitive market where customer trust is paramount.

    For more information on how Mage Data can help your insurance organization secure sensitive data while enabling innovation, contact [email protected].

    Source:
    The recent Economic Times article (https://ciso.economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/cybercrime-fraud/banks-unlikely-to-face-shocks-but-tech-cant-fix-all-the-cost-worries/116871849)
    highlights a growing challenge for Indian banks in 2025: escalating compliance costs amid tighter margins and regulatory changes.

  • Complying with DPDP: Mage Data for Indian Insurers

    Complying with DPDP: Mage Data for Indian Insurers

    In today’s digital landscape, safeguarding personal data is paramount, particularly for Indian insurance companies navigating the complexities of the Digital Personal Data Protection Act (DPDP). With stringent regulations now in place, these companies face the dual challenge of ensuring compliance while simultaneously managing vast amounts of sensitive data. The DPDP introduces specific provisions that significantly impact the insurance sector, demanding robust data protection solutions and meticulous attention to data security practices. Enter Mage Data, a trusted partner offering innovative solutions tailored to empower insurance companies in their journey towards DPDP compliance. In this post, we will delve into the challenges of sensitive data management within the insurance industry and explore how Mage Data’s expertise is pivotal in enhancing data security and maintaining regulatory adherence. For more insights, visit Mage Data’s DPDP page.

    Understanding DPDP Compliance for Insurers

    The Digital Personal Data Protection (DPDP) Act has introduced a new era of data governance in India, especially impacting the insurance sector. This section explores the core provisions of the DPDP Act that insurance companies need to understand and the challenges they face in managing personal data

    Key Provisions Impacting Insurance

    The DPDP Act requires insurance companies to adhere to several key provisions:

    • Data Fiduciary Obligations: Insurers must obtain explicit consent before data collection and ensure data is processed for stated purposes only.
    • Rights of Data Principals: Policyholders have enhanced rights to access, correct, and erase personal data, emphasizing the need for robust data management systems.
    • Enhanced Protection for Sensitive Data: Although not explicitly defined, sensitive data in insurance needs heightened protection, requiring insurers to implement stringent safeguards.

    Insurance companies must also comply with provisions regarding cross-border data transfers, which affect global operations and partnerships. Non-compliance could result in substantial financial penalties, underscoring the importance of adhering to DPDP standards.

    Challenges in Managing Personal Data

    Insurance companies face unique challenges, including handling massive volumes of sensitive data such as health records and financial information. This complexity is compounded by the involvement of multiple stakeholders across the insurance value chain, including agents, brokers, and third-party administrators.

    Legacy systems further complicate matters, as many insurers operate with outdated infrastructure that struggles to align with modern data protection standards. These systems often lack the security capabilities necessary to meet the DPDP requirements.

    The transition to digital platforms introduces additional layers of complexity, with insurers needing to balance legacy systems and new technologies while ensuring comprehensive data protection. The need for innovation in data management is critical in overcoming these challenges.

    Importance of Compliance for Insurers

    • Compliance with the DPDP Act is crucial for insurers not just to avoid penalties but to build customer trust and maintain competitive advantage. Demonstrating a commitment to data protection can enhance customer relationships and brand reputation.
    • Insurance companies must prioritize data protection as part of their broader risk management strategies. By aligning their operations with DPDP standards, insurers can mitigate the risks associated with data breaches and unauthorized access.
    • Ultimately, DPDP compliance represents an opportunity for insurers to differentiate themselves in a privacy-conscious market, positioning themselves as leaders in data protection and customer care.

    Mage Data’s Role in Compliance

    Mage Data provides solutions specifically tailored to help insurance companies achieve and maintain compliance with the DPDP Act. This section explores how Mage Data enhances security, manages sensitive data, and applies its solutions within the insurance industry.

    How Mage Data Enhances Security

    Mage Data enhances insurance data security through AI-powered data discovery and classification tools. These tools automatically identify and classify sensitive data across various systems, ensuring comprehensive monitoring and protection.

    Format-preserving tokenization and context-preserving masking techniques are employed to secure personal data during processing, reducing the risk of unauthorized access. These methods maintain data utility while ensuring privacy.

    Mage Data’s solutions also integrate seamlessly with existing encryption solutions, providing an additional layer of security. This integration is crucial for insurers adopting new technologies and transitioning towards digital transformation.

    Solutions for Sensitive Data Management

    Managing sensitive data within the insurance sector is a formidable task, but Mage Data offers several solutions:

    • Test Data Management: By creating de-identified test data, insurers can safely develop and test applications without exposing actual customer information.
    • Privacy-Enhancing Techniques: These techniques protect sensitive data from breaches by applying advanced tokenization and masking strategies.
    • Access Governance: Mage Data implements database firewalls and dynamic data masking to restrict unauthorized access and ensure compliance with DPDP security safeguards.

    These solutions enable insurers to manage sensitive data efficiently while adhering to regulatory requirements.

    Benefits of Using Mage Data

    Beyond compliance, Mage Data’s solutions offer a range of benefits for insurance companies. This section outlines how risk mitigation strategies, effortless compliance, and strengthened data security can be achieved with Mage Data.

    Conclusion

    The DPDP Act represents a significant shift in India’s data protection landscape, introducing substantial compliance requirements for insurance companies processing personal data of Indian residents. Mage Data’s comprehensive Conversational Data Security Platform addresses these requirements through advanced discovery, classification, protection, and governance capabilities specifically tailored for the insurance industry.

    By implementing Mage Data’s solutions, insurance companies can achieve DPDP compliance while maintaining data utility, operational efficiency, and business continuity. The platform’s innovative approach to Test Data Management creates “Perfectly Useful, Entirely Useless” data that enables insurance operations to continue without risking non-compliance.

    As India’s data protection regime continues to evolve, Mage Data provides the flexibility and scalability needed to adapt to changing requirements, ensuring long-term compliance and data security for insurance companies of all sizes.

    Ready to learn how Mage Data can help your insurance organization achieve DPDP compliance? Contact us today for a personalized demonstration.

  • Navigating HSM Compliance in the Bharat BFSI Sector with Mage Data

    Navigating HSM Compliance in the Bharat BFSI Sector with Mage Data

    Introduction

    The Bharat BFSI sector is navigating a complex regulatory landscape, with stringent requirements for data protection and privacy. Hardware Security Modules (HSMs) are crucial for securing cryptographic keys and ensuring compliance, but they can be challenging to implement and integrate with existing systems. Mage Data offers a powerful solution that complements HSMs, simplifying compliance, enhancing security, and optimizing performance.

    Understanding HSMs and Their Role

    HSMs are specialized hardware devices that safeguard cryptographic keys and perform cryptographic operations within a secure, tamper-proof environment. They are essential for:

    • Key Generation & Storage: Generating strong keys and storing them securely.
    • Key Management: Managing the lifecycle of keys (generation, storage, distribution, and destruction).
    • Cryptographic Operations: Performing encryption, decryption, digital signatures, and authentication.
    • Access Control: Implementing strict access controls to prevent unauthorized use.

    Organizations often face a trio of challenges when implementing HSMs

    • Regulatory Complexity: Navigating the maze of data protection regulations can be daunting. GDPR, CCPA, HIPAA, PCI DSS, and various industry-specific mandates create a complex web of requirements. Data localization laws add another layer of complexity, often requiring keys to be stored within specific geographical boundaries. Keeping up with these evolving regulations and ensuring consistent compliance can be a major headache.
    • Integration Complexity: Many legacy systems weren’t designed with HSMs in mind. Integrating these older systems with modern HSMs can require complex API integrations, middleware solutions, and custom development. Compatibility issues with older cryptographic libraries further complicate the process, leading to increased costs and implementation timelines.




    • Performance Overhead: Cryptographic operations, while essential, can introduce latency. In high-volume environments, this can lead to performance bottlenecks, impacting application responsiveness and user experience. Real-time transaction signing, SSL/TLS encryption, and blockchain key management are just a few examples of workloads that can be affected by HSM latency.

    Mage Data: Enhancing HSMs with Advanced Capabilities

    Mage Data complements HSMs by adding a layer of advanced data security and management capabilities:

    Secure Tokenization and De-tokenization:

    • Mage Data leverages HSMs to protect the mapping between tokens and real data, ensuring that even if tokens are compromised, the original data remains secure.
    • It provides granular control over token usage and facilitates secure de-tokenization when authorized access to the real data is required.

    Controlled Access to Sensitive Data:

    • Mage Data’s masking capabilities, combined with HSM access controls, enable fine-grained control over who can access sensitive data and in what form (masked or original).
    • This allows for secure data sharing and collaboration while protecting sensitive information.

    Performance Optimization:

    • Mage Data can offload certain masking operations to the HSM, leveraging its cryptographic capabilities for enhanced performance, especially for high-volume data masking tasks.

    Centralized Platform:

    • Mage Data integrates with HSMs to provide a centralized platform for managing both masking policies and cryptographic keys, simplifying data security management across the organization.


    How Mage Data Complements HSMs (with Diagram):Benefits of the Integrated Solution:

    • Enhanced Security: Multi-layered protection through HSMs and Mage Data’s masking and tokenization.

    • Simplified Compliance: Meeting regulatory requirements for data protection and key management.

    • Optimized Performance: Efficient masking and cryptographic operations.

    • Centralized Management: Streamlined administration of data security policies and keys.

    • Reduced Risk: Minimizing the risk of data breaches and unauthorized access.

    Conclusion:

    Mage Data complements HSMs by providing advanced data security capabilities, simplifying compliance, and optimizing performance. This integrated approach enables organizations in the Bharat BFSI sector to protect their sensitive data, meet regulatory requirements, and unlock the full potential of their data assets.

  • Why is Referential Integrity Important in Test Data Management?

    Why is Referential Integrity Important in Test Data Management?

    Finding the best test data management tools requires getting all the major features you need— but that doesn’t mean you can ignore the little ones, either. While maintaining referential integrity might not be the most exciting part of test data management, it can, when executed poorly, be an issue that frustrates your team and makes them less productive. Here’s what businesses need to do to ensure their testing process is as frictionless and efficient as possible.

    What is Referential Integrity?

    Before exploring how referential integrity errors can mislead the testing process, we must first explore what it is. While there are a few different options for storing data at scale, the most common method is the relational database. Relational databases are composed of tables, and tables are made up of rows and columns. Rows, or records, represent individual pieces of information, and each column contains an attribute of the thing. So, a “customer” table, for example, would have a row for each customer and would have columns like “first name,” “last name,” “address,” “phone number,” and so on. Every row in a table also contains a unique identifier called a “key.” Typically, the first row is assigned the key “1”, the second, “2,” and so on.

    The key is important when connecting data between tables. For example, you might have a second table that stores information about purchases. Each row would be an individual transaction, and the columns would be things like the total price, the date, the location at which the purchase was made, and so on. The power of relational databases is that entries in tables can reference other tables based on keys. This approach helps eliminate ambiguity. There might be multiple “John Smiths” in your customer table, but only one will have the unique key “1,” so we can tie transactions to that customer by using their unique key rather than something that there might be multiple of, like a name. Therefore, referential integrity refers to the accuracy and consistency of the relationship between tables.

    How Does Referential Integrity Affect Test Data?

    Imagine a scenario in which a customer, “John Doe,” exercised his right under GDPR or CCPA to have his personal data deleted. As a result of this request, his record in the customer table would be deleted, though the transactions would likely remain, as they aren’t personal data. Now, your developers could be working on a new application that processes transactional data and pulls up user information when someone selects a certain transaction. If John’s transactions were included in the test data used, the test would result in an error whenever one of those transactions came up, as the reference included in those transactions has been deleted.

    The developers’ first reaction wouldn’t necessarily be to look at the underlying data, but to instead assume that there was some sort of bug in the code they had been working on. So, they might write new code, test it, see the error again, and start over a few times before realizing that the underlying data is flawed.

    While that may just sound like a waste of a few hours, this is an extremely basic example. More complex applications could be connecting data through dozens of tables, and the code might be far longer and more complicated…so it can take days for teams to recognize that there isn’t a problem with the code itself but with the data they’re using for testing. Companies need a system that can help them deal with referential integrity issues when creating test data sets, no matter what approach to generating test data they use.

    Referential Integrity in Subsetting

    One approach to generating test data is subsetting. Because your production databases can be very, very large, subsetting creates a copy of some of the database which is more manageable in testing. When it comes to referential integrity, subsetting faces the same issues that using a live production environment does: Someone still needs to scrub through the data and either delete records with missing references or create new dummy records to replace missing ones. This can be a time-consuming and error-prone process.

    Referential Integrity in Anonymized/Pseudonymized datasets

    Anonymization and pseudonymization are two more closely related approaches to test data generation. Pseudonymization takes personally identifiable information and changes it so that it cannot be linked to a real person without combining it with other information stored elsewhere. Anonymization also replaces PII data but does it in a way that is irreversible

    These procedures make the data safer for testing purposes, but the generation process could lead to referential integrity issues. For example, the anonymization process may obscure the relationships between tables, creating reference issues if the program doing the anonymization isn’t equipped to handle the issue across the database as a whole.

    How Mage Data Helps with Test Data Management?

    The key to success with referential integrity in test data management is taking a holistic approach to your data. Mage Data helps companies with every aspect of their data, from data privacy and security to data subject access rights automation, to test data management. This comprehensive approach ensures that businesses can spend less time dealing with frustrating issues like broken references and more time on the tasks that make a real difference. To learn more about Mage’s test data management solution, schedule a demo today.