The Next Frontier: Automating Data for DevOps Test Data Management

We’re thrilled to share that Delphix was included as a Sample Vendor for DevOps Test Data Management (TDM) in four 2021 Gartner Hype Cycle reports for Agile & DevOps, Application Security, Data Security, and Software Engineering respectively.

“Each year, Gartner creates more than 90 hype cycles in various domains to track technology maturity and future potential. The five phases in the Hype Cycle are Technology Trigger, Peak of Inflated Expectations, Trough of Disillusionment, Slope of Enlightenment, and Plateau of Productivity.”5

This year, DevOps Test Data Management has surfaced as a practice that can be used to enhance an agile organization’s effectiveness while addressing privacy regulations and protecting against a growing number of ransomware attacks accompanied by data breaches.

Gartner defines DevOps Test Data Management as:

“The process of providing DevOps teams with data to evaluate the performance, functionality and security of applications. It typically includes copying production data, anonymization or masking and virtualization. In some use cases, specialized techniques, such as synthetic data generation, are appropriate. Given potential compliance and privacy issues, the process more frequently involves members of application and data security teams.”1

The pace at which enterprises can bring new products and services to market determines their ability to differentiate from competitors and retain market share. As companies look to accelerate innovation, they need a robust and comprehensive test data management (TDM) strategy that supports an agile application infrastructure. Once viewed as a back office function, TDM is now a critical business enabler for agility, security, and cost efficiency.

Many large IT organizations have gained economies of scale by centralizing test data management, often through the use of tools that subset, mask, and synthesize test data. But, these methods lead to a massive drag on timelines or severe degradation of final code quality.

For DevOps teams that endeavor on executing millions of CI/CD runs per month, it would be impossible to support using a legacy model. That’s why we’ve built a solution that makes data as automated, flexible, and scalable as other parts of DevOps, such as network, storage, code, and compute. Test data automation is the final piece of the automation puzzle.

In order for development and IT teams to efficiently make the right test data available, there are 4 major areas that needed to be addressed:

1. Data distribution: Reducing the time to provision test data

2. Data quality: Fulfilling requirements for high-fidelity test data

3. Data security and compliance: Minimizing security and compliance risks without compromising agility

4. Infrastructure costs: Lowering the costs of storing and archiving test data

The table below examines these criteria across the most common types of test data.

An API-driven platform like Delphix that makes the sharing of lightweight, compliant data possible across teams, testing, and other IT processes can have a transformative effect on software development. For more information on Hype Cycle reports, see the full reports (subscription required) on Gartner.com:

• Hype Cycle for Agile & DevOps, 2021

• Hype Cycle for Application Security, 2021

• Hype Cycle for Data Security, 2021

• Hype Cycle for Software Engineering, 2021

Learn how to meet modern test data management requirements with the Delphix DevOps Data Platform.

Sources:

1 Gartner, “ Hype Cycle for Agile and DevOps”, George Spafford, Joachim Herschmann, July 2021
2 Gartner, “Hype Cycle for Application Security, 2021”, Joerg Fritsch, 12 July 2021
3 Gartner, “Hype Cycle for Data Security, 2021”, Brian Lowans, 27 July 2021
4 Gartner, “Hype Cycle for Software Engineering, 2021”, Abhishek Singh, Mark O'Neill, 27 July 2021
5 Gartner IT Glossary, “Hype Cycle”, 8 October 2021 (https://www.gartner.com/en/information-technology/glossary/hype-cycle )

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