Systems | Development | Analytics | API | Testing

Test data compliance efforts are falling behind development speed, creating a dangerous gap exploited by bad actors and scrutinized by regulators. It's a wake-up call: Dev and test environments are under stricter regulatory scrutiny than ever. In my role as Senior Product Manager for Delphix, I regularly work with enterprise teams who are discovering this reality the hard way.

To use synthetic test data or to use test data masking — that is the question. But the answer may not be what you expect. Before we dive into that, what’s happening in today’s business landscape that’s prompting the question around synthetic vs. masking? Delivering high-quality applications at lightning speed is expected in today’s CI/CD world. Fast time-to-market is at odds with security and compliance requirements.

Yes, you’ve heard it all before: the frequency of cyberattacks and their devastating aftermath, organizations’ gaps in protecting sensitive data, and the financial consequences of not complying with GDPR and the likes. I am not here to share any old news. But there is a risk that is not discussed frequently enough in the news. And it should be. How often do you suppose data in non-production environments is compromised or fails compliance audits?