Smart Technology

Enterprise class business applications require multiple copies be made to support test data management processes such as patch, test, QA and training. Most companies make 6-8 full size clones for every production application, not only wasting storage and time in cloning but potentially exposing sensitive application data to the test environment.

Data masking provides companies with a centralized solution to manage the test data management process for clone creation, productivity and data security. As a result, there is a great risk of this data being used for unlawful activities. Data masking helps in protecting data in less secure environments.

Data is the life blood of any organization, but too much data can slow application and reporting performance and tax IT resources. Utilizing database archiving to actively manage the growth of application data is a key to manage data for its value to the organization.

Data archiving for the enterprise helps in reinstating the application's performance to 50% by archiving inactive data. Enterprise data archiving achieves this by storing data in the less expensive Tier 2 storage system instead of Tier 1, which is the normal case. The advantage of data archiving is that as the organization doesn't need large data sets the IT costs decrease to a minimum. Users of Oracle E-Business Suite, Baan, Oracle JD Edwards, Oracle PeopleSoft, Siebel and more benefit a great deal by data archiving.

While the benefit of archiving reduces the overhead cost of data maintenance, when it stretches beyond the need for existence the natural course to take is retirement. Application retirement solutions offer data migration services across applications, operating systems and databases. While data need not be totally eliminated, it can involve a mix of archiving and deletion.
Database administrators who vouch for speed and usability will definitely benefit from this kind of solution. When profits and budgets are more often analyzed, application retirement is the best option to go for.