Technical Health Check for a Manufacturer's Test Data Platform
6
core platform checks run
10
recommendations (7 for the platform, 3 for masking)
3
phases in the plan for what comes next
The client
A large US packaging manufacturer that copies production databases into a test data platform and masks them for its development and test teams (2020).
The problem
The platform was growing fast and running slower than the team expected, and the team wanted to know why and how to plan for growth.
In one week the platform used an extra 1 TB of disk.
Loading a 3 GB table took 13 minutes on a physical database and 18 minutes on a platform copy.
What we did
Checked CPU, load, memory, memory swapping, system I/O and network across the platform.
Reviewed storage, capacity and settings against best practice.
Reviewed the masking setup: user roles and the masking jobs being run.
Mapped a future state for the process and a phased plan.
Package: Privacy Audit
The result
All six core checks passed, and the review pointed to the likely causes of the slowdown:
Memory was at the 64 GB minimum (128 GB recommended), with no memory or CPU reserved for the platform.
Storage was not spread evenly across the disk controllers, and more space was needed.
Network speed was 1.69 Gb/s on a 10 Gb network, slower than expected.
Axis gave 10 recommendations. For the platform: spread storage evenly, add space, reserve memory and CPU, review how long copies are kept, turn off archive logging before large jobs, plan a second site for disaster recovery, and look into the network setup to find why speed was low. For masking: give users roles based on the access they need, review the jobs that run today, and only include the tables being masked so jobs run faster.
The report included a three-phase plan: process design and onboarding of applications, hands-on training, then ongoing support.
Tools and systems
The client's existing test data and masking platform.