Informatica Test Data Management (TDM) Reviews

We use it to bring live production data into a testing environment for developers and code testing. It works well because it seamlessly connects with the ETL engine and has its own policy pack, reducing the need for custom coding.

TDM also has strong masking capabilities for sensitive data like names, Social Security numbers, dates of birth, and bank accounts, which is crucial, especially in the financial industry.

We also primarily use Informatica PowerCenter, which is our ETL tool. TDM integrates well with PowerCenter, allowing us to bring in development data and incorporate it into the transformation phase of our ETL process. The masked and subsetted data is then loaded into our testing environments.

Informatica TDM improved our data compliance and security for testing. 

Some companies use custom-built, in-house solutions to mask sensitive data, such as Social Security numbers or credit card information. But then, these solutions can vary in robustness and may not allow to track changes.

With Informatica TDM, any production data brought into a non-production environment is automatically securitized. TDM offers different algorithms (around 24 at the time) to choose from for masking data. This flexibility allows us to customize the masking process according to our specific needs.

Informatica TDM is also developer-friendly, making it easy for ETL developers to pick up and use without extensive training. It's not overly complicated and provides a streamlined approach to data masking and security.

Data subsetting and testing cycle: 

Data subsetting is a key aspect of sampling in our testing process. All I need is a small representative sample, like ten thousand records or so. We can select the sample and ensure it covers all possible scenarios. 

The subsetting algorithm in TDM helps us make sure that the subset is representative of the entire population, even with terabytes of data. This is crucial for efficient testing.

The main thing is, in version 9.7.1 (and I think it's still there), there are two features: persistent data masking (PDM) and dynamic data masking (DDM). Both options are used by companies in some way. 

Dynamic data masking means that if someone with authority queries the database, they can see the actual data. However, lower-level users without the necessary permissions will see masked data. It depends on who runs the query. For example, a CEO would see everything, but others wouldn't. Dynamic data masking is implemented in data transit. 

I had the privilege of working with and managing this product back in 2017 when we were implementing version 9.7.1. 

We cannot provide production data to our testing teams, so we use TDM to encrypt or mask the data and create a copy for them. Many teams rely on our data, and TDM helps maintain data security by masking sensitive information.

The primary function of TDM is to mask data while maintaining referential integrity, which allows us to provide necessary data to testing teams without compromising sensitive information.

I am an administrator for the Informatica Test Data Management solution. My team uses it to generate test data, create dummy data, replicate production data by masking it, and use it within the QA environment for testing.

The solution automates the generation and masking of data, significantly speeding up processes that would otherwise be tedious if done conventionally.

The use case includes data masking regarding GDPR. I developed resources for masking data around a hundred of them. Then, I applied the masking tool, mostly on SQL Server data.

It helped when we were moving data from production to test environments. Due to internal policies, we couldn't directly use raw production data. That's where TDM came in. 

It helped enforce those policies by masking sensitive data elements, allowing us to use anonymized data for testing purposes. 

Additionally, the tool enabled us to leverage Teradata Parallel Transporter to write the masked data efficiently to our Teradata warehouse.

The data masking feature has been the most frequently used one. Masking of sensitive production data was my main job.

This product saves time by enabling pretty quick development of data masking/sub-setting the Informatica code.

It's similar to Data Masking, but it focuses on simulating test data. We can simulate the data instead of using the actual process for testing.

Organizations working on different projects can benefit from this tool. It helps simulate and provide test data for testing purposes.

Data Masking and creating subsets of data.

One of our banking clients didn’t want to give live business data to developers, as it had sensitive information. We had to mask the data using Informatica TDM and leverage its built-in algorithm of seed values.

We also had to create a subset of data that had to be given to different teams. For example, the sales team only needed sales information and didn’t require customer information such as Social Security Number. The team working on credit information needed the Social Security Number. So we created subsets of data for each team from the master data.

The ability to mask the same data consistently and in a repeatable way across heterogeneous data sources (e.g., Oracle, XML). This is done without the need to store original and masked value pairs anywhere physically.

• Provided more realistic and consistent test data dumps to external developers
• Decreased the DWH ETL development and testing cycles
• Allowed more thorough testing to be performed on each layer (ODS, DWH, and DM)