IBM InfoSphere Optim Test Data Management

Test Data Management (TDM) is about the provisioning of data for non-production environments, especially for test purposes but also for development, training, quality assurance, demonstrations or other activities. Historically, the predominant technique for provisioning test data has been copying some production data or cloning entire production databases. Copying ‘some’ of the data has issues with ensuring that the data copied is representative of the database as a whole, while cloning entire databases is either expensive (if each team has its own copy) or results in contention (if different teams share the same copies). The other major problem with these approaches is that because of cost/contention issues the environments are not agile and you need agile test data to complement agile development.

IBM InfoSphere Optim Test Data Management resolves these issues, and supports a DevOps-based approach, by allowing you to create referentially intact subsets of the database that accurately reflect the structure of the original data source. This is important because you want test data to be representative of the live environment, as otherwise important test cases can be missed. In the case of IBM InfoSphere Test Data Management, subsets may be of different sizes for different testing purposes: for example, you might want a larger test database for stress testing than for some other types of tests.

There are, in fact, two versions of IBM InfoSphere Optim Test Management: one for z/OS and one for other systems. The latter is currently in version 9.3

IBM InfoSphere Optim Test Data Management is horizontally applicable across all sectors and is marketed directly by IBM. It is particularly useful in DevOps environments where development and operations are collaborating with one another and it also especially complements agile development methodologies.

IBM also has partners marketing specific solutions based on IBM InfoSphere Optim Test Data Management. For example, TouchWorld offers a solution for test data for SAP applications.

IBM’s InfoSphere Optim Test Data Management Solution has a global client base with over a thousand clients worldwide across a variety of industries. DevOps and the need for Continuous Testing are currently driving more demand for an effective test data management solution. Data masking for non-production environments is another requirement creating demand. Customers using IBM Optim Test Data Management include Nationwide Insurance, Conway Inc., GEICO, CSX Corporation, Allianz Seguros, Cetelem (part of BNP Paribas), Dignity Health and HM Land Registry.

IBM’s InfoSphere Test Data Management solution provides capabilities to: discover and understand test data, discover sensitive data, subset data from production, mask test data, refresh test data and analyse test data results. This integrates with the IBM Rational Test Workbench as well as other leading testing suites such as HP Quality Center. You can also use the IBM Rational Service Virtualisation Product (previously Greenhat) and IBM’s Rational Urbancode Deploy in conjunction with this offering. This service virtualisation is important when (some) test data is derived from external sources or is otherwise not easily available.

Notable features of IBM InfoSphere Optim Test Data Management include a range of data masking options, very advanced discovery capabilities, a data comparison capability, data sub-setting based on an understanding of data relationships (to ensure that test data is representative) and support for multi-sized data subsets. InfoSphere Optim Test Data Management can generate a completely anonymous set of data, but this requires a specification of the original data set, which can be a barrier for some clients. Note that this differs from synthetic generation that is generated from a profile of the data, as opposed to being generated from a base dataset. It is likely that IBM will introduce synthetic generation at some point in the future.

There are actually three phases to deployment of IBM InfoSphere Optim Test Data Management: move, edit and compare. In the move phase you extract, copy and move the data (which may come from multiple sources) not necessarily just for creating test data but also to support data migration and data ageing. In the edit phase you can view, and edit if necessary, the extracted data, which can be in any arbitrarily complex schema. In the compare phase you can compare data from one set of source tables with another either online in the Optim GUI or in reports. Compare enables automated comparison of two sets of data, then enables users to do things like compare data after a test run with the baseline ‘before version’ or track database changes or compare different data sources. The three phases, deployed together, enable organisations to easily conduct iterative testing, for faster and more comprehensive testing.

The product runs on Windows, Linux and UNIX platforms and supports not just IBM’s own database products (DB2, Informix et al) but also leading third party database products such as Oracle, SQL Server and Teradata.

In addition to the normal sorts of training and support services you would expect from any vendor (which includes extensive online resources), IBM offers business services (application innovation, business analytics, business strategy, functional expertise, mid-market expertise), IT services (application management, business continuity and resiliency, data centres, integrated communications, IT strategy and architecture, security), outsourcing services (business process out-sourcing and IT outsourcing and hosting), asset recovery, hardware and software financing, IT lifecycle financing and commercial financing.