What is the difference between Simple Data Masking™ and Fast Data Masking™?

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"The depersonalisation features of the Grid-Tools software removed headaches for us, as we can now easily demonstrate compliance with data protection rules."

Nigel Williams,
Senior Systems Consultant,
Watson Wyatt


Feature Simple Data Masking™ Fast Data Masking™
Architecture: Can it update data directly in the database? The data is updated directly in the database. Copy the database, mask it and then pass it to the developers. The data can be updated directly in the database. Copy the database, mask it and then pass it to the developers.

Fast Data Masking™ can also extract data directly without a staging area, pass data through masked views and build high performance shadow tables.
Architecture: Are the primary keys updatable? Yes, although these will need to be disabled Yes FDM will drop and rebuild these automatically
Multi column seed table management (i.e. a zip code and State will match) Yes Yes
Seed table management You can add in your own seed tables You can add in your own seed tables
A GUI Interface to explore and add rules and profile data Yes Yes
Version control and difference management Built into the tool Built into the tool
Does it use local database functions to mask data? A standard set provided with the tool Will vary from database type to database type
What is the standard performance? Approximately 200,000 rows in 10 minutes 100,000,000 in 58 minutes
Parallelism? You can run multiple masks at the same time on all platforms Built in on UNIX/Linux platforms
If a column is a null can I keep it? Yes – configurable by column Yes – configurable by column
Does it include cross reference management? (i.e. keep the same transformation across runs or databases) Yes Yes
Common column discovery Yes – The tool will tree walk across your model to find matched columns that need the same mask applied Yes – The tool will tree walk across your model to find matched columns that need the same mask applied
Can I include my own functions? Yes Yes
Can I mask portions of tables? You can restrict rows to be masked using SQL where clauses You can incorporate database subsetting as part of your masking process
Can I turn on auditing of what has been masked? Yes Yes
Can I mask flat files? Yes – All delimited files with optional headers and trailers can be masked Yes – all file types including complex EDI files and Cobol Ascii and Ebcdic

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