Broadcom Test Data Manager Reviews

Data masking and synthetic data generation.

By using this product we are able to provide test data for the development and testing teams. It has removed the dependency of making production data available for development and testing activities. Using data masking techniques we can comply the rule of non-disclosure of personally identifiable information

Automating repetitive tasks.

More than one year.

By using different functionalities of CA Test Data Manager, we were able to mask and deploy the data very easily to various environments.

Product is quite stable but it has some functional bugs which are fixed as soon as they are reported to the support team.

Yes, the product is quite helpful to suffice our data masking and synthetic data generation requirement.

8 out of 10

9 out of 10, all our queries and functional defects were resolved within very little time. CA technical support people are proactive and we get the fixes in very little time.

No, we didn’t use any other tool beforehand.

Initial setup was pretty straightforward. We just require a license and a native server, after installation the product will be available for all users under the server.

We implemented this in-house.

No, we didn’t evaluate other options. We had researched this tool and then chose it for our requirements.

The most important feature I see is how to have a centralized view of the test data; how efficiently you can use the test data across different business units, starting from generating the data that you need to use, to how to use it, repetitively; how you can grow on it, on top of the base data that you create. TDM is very, very efficient.

Now, though, my company is going through a process to be more agile, which is basically the theme of a recent CA conference I attended. While we are trying to go through the agile journey, there are some building blocks that need to be in place. Test data in the whole product lifecycle, is very, very important; how good is the data that you have; how efficiently you can run those test cases, again and again, repetitively, which is very important; and I guess the features that TDM gives fit right into that; what we are looking for, in the journey that we are having.

I think one thing we would like to see is how quickly it can be used like a SaaS product. You can just plug in incoming data that we have from different sources; how quickly that can be integrated and how the test data can be generated. That quickness I think is something that can be improved.

If plugins can be developed very quickly, that will help companies like us, because we have hundreds of data sources.

Looking at the use cases that we have seen and some of the customer testimonials that we see, I think it shows it has gone through the journey and how the quality of the product is. Some of the proof of concepts that we have done, working with the technology people, we can see the stability of the product; how it can also be very useful to our company.

I think one of the main features of TDM is how you can scale from a small organization; how you can use it in a very big organization. In our company, that is everything. Only because of that very feature, scalability, we are considering TDM.

We have not actually used technical support, because we had gone through some of the proof of concepts, as I’ve mentioned. We were already working with some of the Test Data Management group. We are in the process of finalizing the last couple of products that we are looking at and TDM definitely is at the top.

We were previously using several products, including some in-house products. From my previous experience working with CA, I knew some of the products that they offer. While during the process of the RFP and also some of the new contracts; old contracts are getting renewed; we definitely saw it come to mind and that's how we turned to CA and started this engagement.

We are here to buy it, as I’ve mentioned, but there was an initial setup to do the proof of concepts. I was involved in it with some of their technology people.

It was easy I think because of the experts who were there. They know how to interact with people who don't know the product. When we evolved through that product knowledge, I think they also took us through the journey. It was very easy to interact with them.

There were also other vendors on our shortlist and, as I’ve mentioned, scalability was one of the main reasons because we are growing faster than ever. The data is growing by TBs and TBs, so I think it was one of the big reasons and secondly, I think if we also look at the market, the rating for TDM is very good. I think it was a unilateral decision that TDM should be one of the final products that we should go for.

Use this product with a proof of concept for your organization. The product is very agile. It can fit into small and big organizations, so don't be afraid of that. The product has a lot of features; the way it has been, the product works, is the features. It can work for you as a smaller organization. It can work for a very large organization. Scalability is there. Just use it as a proof of concept and you'll see the power of the TDM.

If we are able to get those – maybe it is there, and we just have to see it in my company – plugging in from all of those different sources, I think that will definitely make it 100% the product that we're looking for.

We started the TDM journey due to our data masking needs.

It doesn’t only cover our data masking needs, but also our data subsetting and synthetic data generation needs. Finally, it gave us the idea of making test data as a service within our organization.

The current version of the product is composed of several sub applications and the UI screens of those apps are not user-friendly enough. We are expecting that existing product should be merged to a single web based application supporting HTML5.

I have about three months of experience. We haven’t installed the product yet. We are at the beginning of the implementation phase.

We are not using it right now. This is the first time we are using the TDM solution. We are just about to install the product. We have not seen any stability issues yet.

We will see about scalability when we implement the product. We are just beginning the implementation phase. We are just about to install the product right now in the production environment.

For technical support, we are fine.

We reviewed different products, like Informatica TDM or IBM Optim. Finally, we decided on the CA TDM solution. This looks like a very Agile product that continues to be enhanced.

Inside the TDM, there are data makers, or different kind of sub-applications. Now they are moving to a single web application interface on TDM.

We are having a serious trouble delivering and providing development environments and test environments for the diversifications that we use at the bank. What we are trying to do is use the time for that delivery, and that is why we are exploring using CA tools for networks. We already have the Server Virtualization tool, and now we are entering into the test of the management phase of tables.

We realized before what we are looking for. Now, we are trying to get everybody to work with the DevOps mindset. That is the main advantage and benefit that we are seeing here.

They are able to provide some technical data, then provide that data to multiple teams for testing purposes. That is the most value for us.

We just started using it. I can't tell you right now.

I can't tell you, because we have not had it for a long time. We have had it for two months. We are starting to really implement it, but so far, so good.

I can't really tell you much. I can tell you about the integration, because we are integrating it with the Service Virtualization tool. Here, we are having a lot of benefits.

For example, we are starting to provide the data necessary to prove little pieces of code or small integration packages, and we have seen a lot of value there.

We have a provider based in Costa Rica. They are the ones that are giving us all the implementation and support. 

Specifically for problems, we have not had any issues yet.

We were not previously using a different solution.

We were already using some CA products before, like Service Desk and ITCM, those are related to infrastructure and the computer themselves. The provider talked to use about if we wanted to get into DevOps. CA had the tools for implementing this strategy, and that is how we found out about it. We saw the demos, then we decided the solution was made for us.

The initial setup was straightforward. Basically, just install, next, and start using it. I figured it out right away.

We did look at SiSoft in Costa Rica, but I do not even know the names of the others, because I was not directly involved with those. I know that we selected SiSoft as an option because of their experience.

We chose CA because of their experience.

The first thing that you should start with is the requirements and automation. That is the first step. We started with the Service Virtualization, then we found that we should have started with the requirements first. Because the natural processes are defined in our requirements, then you go to the virtualizer services that you are going to need, and then the data, but we started with the Service Virtualization. Now, we realized that we needed to start with the requirements first.

It would be working better if the requirements were designed right.

Most important criteria when selecting a vendor: 

• Experience. The vendor already has to have big clients. 
• The implementation process has to be very easy. It was.

As part of the DevOps function, what we are trying to do is create a subset in masked environments that is the basis for our development and testing. In the health care industry, we have a lot of concern with PII and PHI, so making sure that it is not exposed in non prod environments. Also, lessening the amount of disk space which is used for these environments, making it faster, speedier to market, etc.

So far, it is performing well. We are still in our initial build out phase, but it is all coming together. 

We are still in our DevOps build out phase. However, it will allow us to have quicker releases, more frequent with smaller content, as well as speed up our testing.

The masking of data has really been key for us to be able to replace PII with fake values. To be able to model the data, then subset it based upon a set of drivers that I use. 

They are currently working on a lot of things that we have requested to simplify: the UI and to make it more consistent; a better fit and finish. Get everything centralized into the portal.

It is improving. We have become part of the design partner program for several of the tools and we really see them heading in the right direction. We look forward to some of the improvements that they are making.

We have used technical support throughout: logging some tickets and some issues that we have had. As well as going into the communities page to give some recommendations. Technical support is really quick to respond and usually very helpful.

Things have been relatively easy to either work around or they have been able to be identified pretty quickly and get flagged for future fixes.

The initial setup was complex, because it is new to the company as well as new to me. It is a new role for me, so building it from the ground up certainly makes it complex.

Feel free to ask questions. There are really helpful people that are willing to take the time to work with you and provide a solution. Think about it holistically. Do not think about it as a siloed approach to just solving one problem. Think about how it is going to fit into the larger DevOps organization. 

CA willingness to listen to customers has surprised me. Being part of this design partner program, I really feel like our concerns are being taken seriously and it is not just sales pitch stuff. 

What do you personally like to see in a vendor: That you are being taken seriously. That your concerns are valid and to see actual movement with them. This is my first vendor that I have worked with extensively, which has been good.

The synthetic data generation. It generates the data. By default you get the data but then you have to modify the data. There, I find that it does that amazingly well. I have not seen that feature as capable in other tools.

This data is a very, very important thing because there are a lot of challenges around this data right now and it's very complex. Creating test data right from scratch is going to be complex. But with the Data Finder's synthetic data generation, the whole copy is created and then on top of it all the data manipulation is done. 

I can't think of anything at this point in time.

Stability is very good. In my role as an Engagement Manager, I don't, on a day to day, use the tool. My team does that. But I have not heard any complaints.

Scalability. It's good as well.

I haven't used tech support personally, but my team does. I have actually been to the CA office in Scottsdale many times. The support is very good because we are, in many ways, a partner with CA.

We were using our own tool, DDC2 which is a homegrown tool, as well as in some areas IBM Optim.

I was not involved in the initial setup.

In terms of advice it depends on what you need. Based on our experience we have seen this is a very good tool. Especially when you need to get the bulk data and make changes to it on the fly to do testing. This is the tool that you can use.

What we do is we generate data that we use to generate like socials. We can also virtualize the bureaus that the software calls out to, so we can get a good response back that we can simulate.

It is just easy to manage from what I have seen so far.

It saves us time from generating the same amount of data in real-time.

There are some known bugs that I have found, but I think those are known issues. I think those issues just need to be worked out.

So far, so good.

So far it has worked for our enterprise services, and we are pretty large. So, I would say it is fairly scalable at the moment.

Initial setup was pretty straightforward. We had one user that was primarily working on it. She probably spent a few months initially setting it up, but it is just because we do not know the product. We did not know it at first, and working out all the kinks to work with our environment.

I would say trial it out.

The most valuable feature of the product is its ability to generate and scrub test data. You can use it to pull data down from production and remove the customers' private data. There is reliable automation so that your automated tests can run over and over again without failing due to bad data. It has a fairly intuitive UI and there is support when you need it.

Automation tests are more stable so they can be run more continuously.

I would like to see more support for generating the data for loading performance.

This product is stable enough.

We haven't had any issues so far, so I guess I'd say I'm comfortable with the scalability right now.

We didn't have a solution in place before we selected this software. Automation testing was new and as soon as the automation tests started being developed, the need for data came very quickly. I think being able to locate help and people that know how to do implementation and setup when you get stuck brought us to this solution. At some point, you need to decide to either build or buy.

When you do your implementation, find an experienced implementer to get it set up and get it done right the first time.