Elevate your SAP test data management and data scrambling
With the world-renowned Data Sync Manager™ (DSM) Suite, you can copy and mask data efficiently between and within any SAP® ABAP-stack landscape, and reduce your footprint for agile, business-aligned landscapes.
Shrink your test systems by 75% with lean, fit-for-purpose clients
Save up to 80% on S/4HANA appliance costs
Mask sensitive data for data privacy compliance
Increase scrambling coverage by 80%
Speed up your testing process by up to 90%
Why do you need to manage SAP test data in non-production systems?
Irrespective of the size of your SAP estate, data quality in your SAP non-production systems can get outdated quickly. Leveraging SAP system copies is time consuming, takes a lot of disk space and means considerable business downtime. Having reliable test data in your non-production systems is critical for testing, support and training, and to support agile development.
More companies are moving to SAP S/4HANA®, and moving workloads to the cloud, demanding lean and secure test systems to reduce disk space and optimize costs. Companies also face the complexities of managing data security, and compliance with data privacy regulations like GDPR, so need best-practice strategies to manage sensitive data and reduce business risk.
Solve all your SAP test data and scrambling challenges
With the Data Sync Manager™ (DSM) software suite and related services, you can rapidly create new non-production systems, reduce the footprint when refreshing existing test clients or creating new ones, and copy selected data on demand, all with integrated scrambling of data for security. Trusted by over 800 companies world-wide, DSM is the simplest, most effective way to copy and mask data between and within any SAP ABAP-stack landscape (such as ERP, CRM or BW).
DSM is certified by SAP for 'Integration with SAP S/4HANA®' and 'Integration with SAP S/4HANA Cloud®'. DSM5 also 'works with RISE with SAP®'.
Solve all your SAP test data and scrambling challenges
With the Data Sync Manager™ (DSM) software suite and related services, you can rapidly create new non-production systems, reduce the footprint when refreshing existing test clients or creating new ones, and copy selected data on demand, all with integrated scrambling of data for security. Trusted by over 800 companies world-wide, DSM is the simplest, most effective way to copy and mask data between and within any SAP ABAP-stack landscape (such as ERP, CRM or BW).
DSM is certified by SAP for 'Integration with SAP S/4HANA®' and 'Integration with SAP S/4HANA Cloud®'. DSM5 also 'works with RISE with SAP®'.
Cut time and costs when you move to SAP S/4HANA
Moving to S/4HANA – however you’re choosing to get there – is likely to be the biggest SAP-related project on your horizon. Whether you use a Greenfield, Brownfield or Selective Data Transition (SDT) approach, DSM can cut costs significantly, as well as saving you time and ensuring a more efficient process. With DSM, you can reduce the footprint of your SAP systems by enterprise and/or time-slice to deliver lean, business-aligned landscapes with increased agility for current and future upgrades.
Before you migrate, use DSM to rationalize your landscape. During migration, use DSM to build a lean, dedicated sandbox for the project. Then use DSM to build out smaller new test and development systems. After the migration, DSM can keep your landscape agile.
Streamline data processes and protect your data with DSM
The DSM Suite is made up of four complementary products that can be used in conjunction with each other or independently: System Builder™/Shell Sync™, Client Sync™, Object Sync™ and Data Secure™.
Build a new system shell quickly
System Builder™ creates a new non-production system shell, without any application data. The repository is exactly the same as that of Production, but without the Production client. For S/4HANA systems, System Builder is replaced by Shell Sync™, which aligns the target system repository with the source.
High-performance client copying
Client Sync™ creates lean SAP clients that are fully functional and have complete data integrity. An alternative to a full system refresh.
Reliable test data when
you need it
Object Sync™ allows functional users to copy specific data scenarios, on demand, with complete data integrity, from any system to another.
Protect your sensitive data
Data Secure™ is a comprehensive protection solution that comes with pre-defined masking rules. It protects sensitive data across all non-production systems using flexible masking options.
How does DSM solve your challenges?
High disk space/cost
Doing SAP system copies is a method used to duplicate an SAP system, and copy data back from Production systems. This means you copy the whole system, which takes up the same amount of disk space as your Production system – becoming very costly over time. With SAP S/4HANA systems, this cost is even higher, as S/4HANA disk space tends to be more expensive. And in the cloud, you need a larger T-shirt size on your appliance.
With DSM, you can reduce the footprint of your non-production environment:
- By enabling developers, analysts, and consultants to copy just the data they need, you can reduce the number of non-production systems used, and refresh less frequently.
- Client Sync allows test clients to be less than 30% of the Production size. You can also create temporary systems for projects that can be discarded afterwards.
Data Sync Manager is very good at taking selective pieces of data that we need, and slicing that into different sizes. So for each environment, you wouldn’t necessarily take the same amount of data, because you don’t need as much data in a sandbox system as in a test system. So DSM is good at slicing and dicing the data as you need it, to reduce size.
Steve Ross, SAP Technical Services Manager, Dunelm | Discover how DSM helped Dunelm realign their SAP landscape
Securing sensitive data
With current data privacy legislation, keeping sensitive data in your non-production environment is not acceptable practice. SAP states in their contract (Data processing Agreement for Cloud services, SAP support and SAP Services) that all data in non-production should be anonymized.
Limit data to only what is adequate, relevant and necessary. Data minimization enables you to reduce both your risk in the testing environment, and security threats.
DSM includes Data Secure for intelligent scrambling of test data, executed on specific datasets or masking an entire client. Data Secure is integrated with Object Sync and Client Sync so data is masked before it leaves the source.
We wanted to be 100% confident that all sensitive data was masked. We needed a product that would remove the manual effort, allow us to schedule jobs and enable us to comply with regulations. That product proved to be Data Secure.
Jan Huizinga, Technical consultant, Rabobank | Find out how Rabobank complies with banking regulations
Faster refreshes
To refresh your QA or DEV environment with data, you can do an SAP system copy, but this process is resource-heavy and cumbersome, causing Production downtime. By selecting to do Client copies instead, you can speed up the process significantly.
Client Sync eliminates the need for the BDLS, as it looks for all logical system source values in the data at the same time, and makes changes while the data is in memory.
- Test users are empowered to get what they need when they need it. Source and Target system are available throughout.
- Most organizations can refresh QA over a weekend. Target deletion and Source extract start at the same time.
DSM has saved us a considerable amount of time as refreshes have improved from manual intervention with a lot of costly activity, to minimal activity.
Jeff Greiner, Director, Enterprise Applications Engineering, Siemens PLM Software | Read how DSM saves Siemens time and resources
Effectiveness of testing
The effectiveness of your testing is dependent on the quality of your test data. Without accurate test data, you can’t be sure the result of your testing will perform the same in your Production environment.
With DSM, you can make sure the test environment is set up to be in line with Production, populated with accurate, scrambled data, and with a smaller subset of data.
DSM has given us a faster, more consistent test process, and allowed us to meet ad hoc business requests quickly. It’s also reduced our data footprint and masked our sensitive data, which is a big bonus.
Tom Garreis, SAP Basis & Security Manager, A.O. Smith | Read how DSM gave A.O.Smith a faster, automated process
Training scenarios
Training co-ordinators need specific examples to train employees on their systems. Creating specific datasets that can be changed in a training environment is the ideal scenario.
With DSM, you can ‘clone’ data for each student in the class:
- Any test client can now be a training client. Object Sync can clone existing data and into a specific number range. Everyone on the training course has matching data.
- Prepare your perfect training sets with Object Sync, then back up the client for quick resetting if wider data is affected. A master training client can automatically overwrite the clients that are used for training on a periodic basis.
DSM has had a profound effect on our training... There is no post-processing and the costs of 260GB of disk are saved, every time!
Mike Ellis, Software Development Technical Manager, Edwards UK | Explore how DSM changed Edwards' training process
Problem simulations
Support teams need to be able to replicate a problem that occurred in the system. Doing problem resolution in your Production system is risky, and can cause further damage. But without the dataset causing the problem in non-production, simulating the problem is difficult.
Complex data or surrounding data can be brought to replicate the problem exactly; for example, materials with the latest pricing conditions. Without DSM, just replicating the problem can take hours.
DSM has been a real game-changer for us, and has allowed the team to work much more efficiently.
David Hall, Compass Group UK | Watch how Compass Group benefits from DSM
Why choose DSM?
Why choose DSM?
Data Sync Manager offers us the capability to do a fast refresh of a system using a specific time slice without needing business analysts. We now re-use same exports multiple times to refresh our development system, and to reduce our footprint we refresh the QA and Dev system with a time-slice of data. The support we received during implementation has been very good. We have seen a big improvement in the quality of our test data in QAS!
IT Manager, Associated Weavers
I think Data Sync Manager is something all SAP users need. I found it really hard previously as we had to do so much testing with key users after we made the copies, to make sure we had good, clear data after synchronisation; now we can speed up the process, as we don't need to do this testing with users.
IT Manager, Leading bedding specialist
I use Data Sync Manager to do a client copy. The benefit of using a client copy is that it is now much faster and it requires none of the lengthy post-processing time. Instead of having to plan for weeks, I can create a copy and it is ready within a day or two.
Suzanne van Kalsbeek, Manager Business Apps, Sound United/Masimo Consumer
Our IT team can now refresh our test data (both SAP and non-SAP) quickly, easily, consistently and independently. We can run a refresh project of 54 operating companies in over 30 SAP systems in just a few days. And importantly, all our sensitive data is consistently anonymous.
Manoranjan Mishra, Product Owner: Insights Enablement Portfolio, Heineken
To have the ability to copy accurate, time-sliced data is very powerful. It increases our confidence level in terms of our testing before we put the solution into the live environment.
Harsha Patel, Technology Solutions Manager, BT
The benefit we get from using Data Sync Manager is that we quickly have test data available. This means I could start a job to get the data from the production system for the coming night, and then tomorrow I can import the data into the development system. So in two days I can have the test data available in the development system.
Ronald Janssen, ABAP Software Engineer, Basiq Dental
Looking for an industry-specific SAP solution?
SAP has specific solutions for various industries, and each of these industries faces unique test data management challenges. Find out more about these challenges and how Data Sync Manager can help to address them.
SAP in the Utilities industry
MoreSAP in the Oil & Gas sector
MoreSAP in the Government/Public Sector
MoreSAP in the Financial Services sector
MoreSAP in the Insurance industry
MoreSAP in the Retail industry
MoreSAP in Healthcare organizations
MoreSAP in the Education sector
MoreSAP Utilities Industry Solution (IS-U)
Companies running SAP’s Utilities Industry Solutions (IS-U) have a particularly difficult challenge in getting good test data. These utilities also face an uphill battle when trying to get accurate test data. Both IS-U and CRM environments tend to increase quickly, with a large amount of data relating to business partners, installations, premises, point of deliveries and other technical master data. Production data also changes quickly in the utilities, due to new transactions and functionality, as companies try to stay competitive in a mature market and keep up to date with industry compliance requirements.
IS-U: A different data model
The data model for IS-U is very different from standard ERP. With production systems containing literally millions of customers, it is impossible to keep several full copies of production in the non-production landscape. This provides a massive challenge around enabling functional analysts, testers, trainers and consultants to access the data required to support the production system.
The solution: DSM for Utilities
EPI-USE Labs’ Data Sync Manager™ (DSM) for Utilities offers an effective and efficient solution, and provides the flexibility and power that all IS-U customers require. It provides a lean testing environment with a subset of business partners and all their related data, so a full history of the accounts. You can then add additional data on demand by copying data for specific accounts, as and when needed. Typically, less than 10% of the size of the production system is needed. The bigger benefit is having the real data available. The testing mimics what would happen in production, even in development and early testing systems. The system can replicate an issue for a specific contract in minutes, with no need to copy the other customers from the production system. There is no system downtime, no large space requirements, and no effect on other users of the test client.
For most of the testing and training requirements, all the necessary data can be derived from an installation, contract or contract account, also picking up the Business Partner, premise, devices and equipment with related transactional data. Full consistency across the wider finance module is not usually necessary. So, meter reading, data exchange flows, billing documents and print documents can all be copied exactly as they occurred on the source.
SAP Oil and Gas Solution (IS-Oil)
Companies in the Oil and Gas industry have ever-increasing volumes of data, combined with diverse landscapes of business areas, production, contracts, ownership, revenue accounting, scheduling, tariffs, duties, permits, transportation and marketing, to name a few. These factors sometimes cause business processes to fail, and it's imperative to correct the specific business process promptly.
How to replicate errors in Production
Production business processes need to be replicated onto testing systems to find or replicate the same error experienced in the Production environment. Consequently, there is a demand for landscapes where tests can be concluded. These test systems need to have current and recent business data to mimic the same process to be tested; and the systems must be small, agile and refreshed at regular intervals.
Reducing the window for a test system refresh – using a solution like EPI-USE Labs’ Client Sync™– allows more frequent test refreshes with increased landscape flexibility (for example, temporary clients for specific projects which can be disposed of when that project completes).
Copy small sets of real data on demand
Enabling analysts, DevOps and consultants to copy small sets of real data on demand to existing test clients can also relieve some of the pressure during key project phases and ensure the tests carried out are realistic and more representative of what will happen when the project finally goes live. This can be achieved easily and in a repeatable, consistent manner with Object Sync™.
Mask sensitive data for security
With both copy methods, it’s essential to have an intelligent data-masking solution, like Data Secure™, which can provide accurate values for masking without traceable patterns in the data. It also has the capability to create address masking which will pass postal code checkers.
SAP for Government/Public sector (IS-PS)
Public sector SAP systems have their own unique challenges when it comes to test data and managing the landscape. Typically, Finance is one of the main departments using SAP, with a large volume of purchasing document flows. Funds’ management and budgets are specific to the public sector and cater for some of the processes which typically do not exist outside of such organizations.
SAP business challenges in the public sector
The creation of data like Derivation Rules directly in Production makes it very hard to recreate Production issues accurately in test systems, meaning sooner or later a full copy back from production must be carried out. There are other types of data which, while not unique to the public sector, are much more common here (for example, multiple employment, which can be very challenging when testing payroll issues or changes). There is also some sensitive data in the public sector, which typically does not exist in a commercial organization. These could include, for example, suppliers for police equipment, or providers of care for children in the custody of the local government.
Extensive experience of public sector organizations
EPI-USE Labs has a long track record of working for many public sector organizations. Products like our Data Sync Manager™(DSM) suite have specific functionality to help create test environments and data securely and accurately for organizations demanding value for money and transparency. Client Sync™, part of the DSM Suite, can create reduced test clients without the need for a full system refresh, including the latest Derivation Rules.
Sensitive data can be masked automatically as part of that process. Data on demand can be copied for budgets, purchasing, HCM and all the other key areas of functionality. We can also deal with related SRM systems at the same time with DSM for SRM, ensuring consistent masking across the test environment.
SAP in the Financial Services sector
Keeping up with regulations means the business needs to make configuration changes in SAP in a time-critical way, and be sure those changes won’t disrupt the day-to-day running of the production systems. Many regulations mean that banks, and other financial services organizations, must follow strict procedures when handling productive data. Furthermore, the data must be anonymized in non-production systems in compliance with data protection regulations.
Huge financial risks and large amounts of data
It is not easy to make changes in these organizations, as small mistakes can cause huge financial risks. The industry introduces such changes very carefully, and typically after spending many human hours on testing. The bank data required must always be up to date to serve these complex test requirements. However, the amount of data which needs to be copied to refresh the test environments is huge, and makes that process very long with complex technical requirements.
The benefits of DSM for the Financial Services sector
Client Sync™ can refresh test clients without the need for a system copy; the data can also be masked at the same time. This reduces the complexity, removing the need to correct the myriad of interfaces to other systems which are typically present for Financial Services SAP systems. It also lowers the volume of the test systems and makes the process much quicker.
Data Secure™ can scramble complex banking objects across multiple systems efficiently and consistently. Object Sync™ can copy and scramble selective complicated banking objects such as accounts, collaterals and loans, with the help of specially defined scenarios.
SAP in the Insurance industry
The Insurance Industry Solution for SAP leverages Financial Services Collections and Disbursements (FSCD) and creates high data volumes due to the frequently changing customer data with new dunning runs, payments etc. It also integrates into Contract Accounting (FICA) resulting in a myriad of data all flowing from a single Business Partner. When testing or troubleshooting, a complete history is required for test cases so that balances, credit checking, etc. is correct. This typically means companies rely on frequent system copies with large volumes of data.
Build lean clients with DSM Client Sync
Client Sync™ allows insurance organizations to build lean clients with a time-slice of posting documents and accounting documents, but all the master data and payment plan data for customers which is required for accurate testing. This reduces the volume in test and development clients, allowing more flexibility in the landscape, and simplifies the refresh process for Basis teams, making the outcome much more predictable.
Select specific Insurance Objects with DSM Object Sync
With Object Sync™, there are a number of Insurance specific objects and a Scenario object which allows selection by specific ‘Insurance Object’ keys and collects all related data – such as Business Partner, Contract Account, Payment Plans, Partner FS-CD data, FICA postings – so that the exact situation for that account can be set up in seconds in testing environments. This is invaluable for production support issues, as well as better unit testing in development systems, regression and integration testing in higher systems.
Mask sensitive company information
Sensitive customer information, names, addresses and bank details can be masked as part of both the Client Sync and Object Sync process. Alternatively, existing test systems can be masked as a stand-alone with Data Secure™, leveraging the same masking policies.
SAP in the Retail industry (IS-Retail)
For most companies in the retail sector, the only thing that is constant is change. As the business strives to get ahead of the competition, with new promotions and pricing conditions, products need to hit the market on time. For predominantly B2C companies, the challenge can be heightened further by seasonal promotions.
Overlapping projects and complex interfaces
Projects tend to roll through the landscape one after the other, but often overlapping, leaving very small windows to refresh test systems. This means that the latest data doesn’t make it back to development and test systems, ultimately reducing the quality of testing. In many cases there are many interfaces to external systems, CRM, Point of Sale (POS), etc., making test refreshes particularly complex. And, of course, where there is B2C data in the systems, that data must be protected through masking and removal of sensitive data, without lowering the quality of the data for testing and training.
More frequent test refreshes with DSM Client Sync
Reducing the window for test system refresh using a solution like Client Sync™ can enable more frequent test refreshes. It can also enable more landscape flexibility (for example, temporary clients for specific projects which can be disposed of when that project is complete).
Copy real data on demand with DSM Object Sync
Enabling analysts, DevOps and consultants to copy small sets of real data on demand to existing test clients can also relieve some of the pressure during key project phases. It also ensures that the tests carried out are realistic and more representative of what will happen when the project finally goes live. This can be achieved easily and in a repeatable, consistent manner with Object Sync™.
DSM Data Secure: Intelligent data masking
With both copy methods, it’s essential to have an intelligent data-masking solution - like Data Secure™ - which can provide accurate-looking values for masking without traceable patterns in the data. It also has the capability to create address masking which will pass postal code checkers.
SAP in Healthcare organizations
Healthcare organizations running the SAP industry solution have a dedicated data model for the industry, allowing them to manage the large volumes of detailed, sensitive customer data effectively.
Can you copy patient data accurately and with their full history?
Testing patient data cases requires accurate replication of the full history of a patient’s data. A partial copy of this information would not be suitable for ensuring that processes are properly tested and verified prior to proceeding into production. For this reason, full copies of Production are typically used, but this brings a massive data privacy risk into these test systems.
Third-party support or development organizations cannot be granted access to these systems and so a large part of testing is done against unrealistic data. When testing case scenarios for patients, it’s important that you have a solution that allows you to copy patient data accurately and with their full history.
The solution for Healthcare organizations running SAP: Data Sync Manager
Client Sync™ allows a reduced client to be created with a subset of patients’ records, all masked before leaving the production system.
Object Sync™ then allows existing records to be updated or new ones to be added to the test system, leveraging the same intelligent masking routines as Client Sync.
SAP in the Education sector
Higher education institutions, predominantly universities, have a growing need to quantify, qualify and analyze student data for business insights to remain competitive. This data set is often spread across multiple interfacing systems, applications and databases. SAP Student Lifecycle Management (SLCM) can bridge this gap with a unified platform as institutions seek a single view approach to consume a students’ academic journey. This holistic view of a student data set, although promising, can quickly grow into terabytes of data per year.
Understanding student data flows
To remain competitive, academic institutions must interpret and understand student data flows from admissions, enrolment, course registration, examinations, student events, student finance, accommodation, grants and scholarships, and graduations.
Universities now have this single platform to analyze student data, although they do face new challenges; for example, having only the right volume of data, and protecting the confidentiality of students Personally Identifiable Information (PII) on data to be analyzed outside the production landscape.
An all-in-one solution for a student's data journey
EPI-USE Labs’ Data Sync Manager™(DSM) suite offers an all-in-one solution to copy a subset of a student’s data journey and create a lean system for data analysis and testing purposes.
Our Data Secure™ data-masking solution provides a platform to scramble or anonymize student personal data (student master data, visa information and passport data) without compromising the quality of test data.
This means the university can focus on what really matters most to them – finding patterns and remaining true to their research roots.
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