Accelario Test Data Management and Database Virtualisation

Accelario is an emerging test data management vendor that specialises in database virtualisation via its namesake platform.  This is notable, as database virtualisation is not a common capability in the testing space, despite its advantages. As with most other virtualisation solutions, Accelario allows you to create a “golden copy” of your data, then create and distribute extremely lightweight “virtualised copies” from it, allowing you to test with anything up to all of your data without any undue slowdown or inefficiency.

In principle, this technique removes the need for subsetting and/or synthetic data technology. In practice, things are not so simple, and both can still be useful – or even necessary – in the right (or wrong) circumstances. One of Accelario’s strengths is that, although it focuses on virtualisation, it also provides native tools for creating subsets and synthetic data sets (although in the latter case, not to the extent that you would want to use it as a standalone solution). Indeed, you can even include subsets and/or synthetic data sets inside your golden copy, or ingest synthetic data into individual virtualised copies. Moreover, Accelario can deliver both virtualised and physical (non-virtualised) test data sets interchangeably.

On the other hand, database virtualisation absolutely still requires data discovery and masking technology, so that any sensitive data in your golden copy can be properly secured before being virtualised and distributed. This is important for regulatory compliance. Fortunately, Accelario also provides these capabilities, including both static (in place) and dynamic (on the fly) masking, the latter of which will mask your sensitive data automatically based on the credentials of whoever is accessing it. Full encryption is also available for your golden copy.

Accelario provides your choice of either fully automated or semi-automated (actionable with a single click) refresh of both your golden copy and any virtualised copies derived from it, including schema updates and any necessary distribution of virtualised copies. This is an important feature: it allows Accelario to continually update your test data sets and propagate those updates accordingly, contributing significantly to the end-to-end automation of test data management.

Finally, Accelario offers support for cloud and hybrid environments, including tight integration with Amazon RDS, the distributed relational database service by AWS.