Micro Focus Launches Data Express 4.0

08.04.2009
Micro Focus announced the availability of Micro Focus Data Express 4.0. The new product ensures complete security of existing data during critical data testing processes, eliminating the risk of non-compliance and data leakage. It is also now available for the first time on distributed environments, including Windows, Unix and Linux, in addition to the mainframe.

With such a wide number of laws and regulations currently in place (UK Data Protection Act, EU Data Directive, Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard, Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act), and the raft of recent data breaches, enterprises are under more pressure than ever to ensure they are robustly protecting their customers' data and complying with data privacy legislation. The second challenge with using production-derived data for testing is that the volumes are huge, making the testing process slow and unwieldy and inevitably more costly.

Data Express 4.0 reportedly addresses both issues through its data masking and data subsetting capabilities. Data masking allows companies to rapidly build automated and repeatable testing processes in order to conceal the data in line with data privacy regulations and eliminate the risk of data breaches. Data subsetting significantly reduces test data size to typically less than 10% of the size of the original, making it more manageable and reducing both data storage costs and the amount of man and elapsed hours spent executing tests. Micro Focus is also launching its Quick Start Methodology, which greatly simplifies the implementation process and allows an enterprise to be up and running on Data Express 4.0 within 20 days.

Stuart McGill, CTO, Micro Focus, said: "The only effective way to ensure your systems are still operating at full capacity after any change to the business is through live testing of existing data. However, with the amount of confidential information stored in IT systems and the current high profile of data breaches, it is essential that organisations do not leave themselves liable to a data leak. Data Express 4.0 ensures the security of organisations' data, while improving the quality of business applications themselves. Now it is available across both mainframe and contemporary platforms, Data Express 4.0 turns testing into an asset, rather than an impediment, for all types of business.