APPARATUSES, METHODS AND SYSTEMS FOR PROVIDING A VIRTUAL DEVELOPMENT AND DEPLOYMENT ENVIRONMENT INCLUDING REAL AND SYNTHETIC DATA

• US 20100192220A1
• Filed: 09/08/2009
• Published: 07/29/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 09/08/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Robin Heizmann, Toni Farruggia
• Original Assignee: Robin Heizmann, Toni Farruggia
• Inventors: Farruggia, Toni, Heizmann, Robin
• Granted Patent: US 8,930,275 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 726/19
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3664 Environments for testing or debugging software
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3688 for test execution, e.g. scheduling of test suites
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/283 Multi-dimensional databases or data warehouses, e.g. MOLAP or ROLAP
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/284 Relational databases
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/288 Entity relationship models
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/6254 by anonymising data, e.g. decorrelating personal data from the owner's identification
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management

Abstract

The APPARATUSES, METHODS AND SYSTEMS FOR PROVIDING A VIRTUAL DEVELOPMENT AND DEPLOYMENT ENVIRONMENT INCLUDING REAL AND SYNTHETIC DATA (“SYNONYM”) provides a development and test environment with reduced database storage requirements that uses synthetic data based on anonymized real data. SYNONYM allows the use of sensitive data for testing while protecting such data as required by privacy laws, secrecy laws and company policies.

Claims

1. A data synthesizing processor-implemented method, comprising:

receiving a request to create synthesized testing data;

identifying real data records for anonymization;

selecting a source of conjured data for anonymization of real data records based on a unique identifier in the real data records;

creating an anonymized data set by replacing real data in the real data records, based on the unique identifier in the real data records, with the selected conjured data;

selecting a subset of the anonymized data set based on specified criteria for synthesization;

generating a synthetic database, wherein generation further includes;

instantiating a shell synthetic database,

populating the shell synthetic data by copying the selected subset of the anonymized data set into the shell synthetic database,

generating synthetic unique identifiers, and

replacing unique identifiers with synthetic unique identifiers; and

instantiating the synthetic database.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein, the specified criteria is provided by a user including constraints based on a business constellation.

3. A data synthesizing apparatus, comprising:

a memory;

a processor disposed in communication with said memory, and configured to issue a plurality of processing instructions stored in the memory, wherein the processor issues instructions to;

receive a request to create synthesized testing data;

identify real data records for anonymization;

select a source of conjured data for anonymization of real data records based on a unique identifier in the real data records;

create an anonymized data set by replacing real data in the real data records, based on the unique identifier in the real data records, with the selected conjured data;

select a subset of the anonymized data set based on specified criteria for synthesization;

generate a synthetic database, wherein generation further includes instructions to;

instantiate a shell synthetic database,

populate the shell synthetic data by copying the selected subset of the anonymized data set into the shell synthetic database,

generate synthetic unique identifiers, and

replace unique identifiers with synthetic unique identifiers; and

instantiate the synthetic database.

4. A data synthesizing processor-readable medium storing processor-issuable instructions to:

receive a request to create synthesized testing data;

identify real data records for anonymization;

select a source of conjured data for anonymization of real data records based on a unique identifier in the real data records;

create an anonymized data set by replacing real data in the real data records, based on the unique identifier in the real data records, with the selected conjured data;

select a subset of the anonymized data set based on specified criteria for synthesization;

generate a synthetic database, wherein generation further includes instructions to;

instantiate a shell synthetic database,

populate the shell synthetic data by copying the selected subset of the anonymized data set into the shell synthetic database,

generate synthetic unique identifiers, and

replace unique identifiers with synthetic unique identifiers; and

instantiate the synthetic database.

5. A data synthesizing system, comprising means to:

means to receive a request to create synthesized testing data;

means to identify real data records for anonymization;

means to select a source of conjured data for anonymization of real data records based on a unique identifier in the real data records;

means to create an anonymized data set by replacing real data in the real data records, based on the unique identifier in the real data records, with the selected conjured data;

means to select a subset of the anonymized data set based on specified criteria for synthesization;

means to generate a synthetic database, wherein generation further includes;

means to instantiate a shell synthetic database,

means to populate the shell synthetic data by copying the selected subset of the anonymized data set into the shell synthetic database,

means to generate synthetic unique identifiers, and

means to replace unique identifiers with synthetic unique identifiers; and

means to instantiate the synthetic database.

6. An environment testing processor-implemented method, comprising:

receiving a request to create a test environment;

identifying real data records based on the request;

generating anonymized data from the real data;

selecting a subset of the anonymized data based on the request;

generating synthesized data from the subset of anonymized data;

generating a synthetic test environment, wherein generation further includes;

instantiating user accounts,

populating the test environment with a profile of testing components,

loading the synthesized data into the test environment; and

deploying the synthetic test environment to a location specified in the request.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein, the request includes constraint criteria for selecting a subset of data from the anonymized data for use in generating the synthesized data.

8. The method of claim 6, further, comprising:

effecting performance of testing in the deployed synthetic test environment.

9. The method of claim 6, further, comprising:

effecting decommissioning of the deployed synthetic test environment.

10. An environment testing apparatus, comprising:

a memory;

a processor disposed in communication with said memory, and configured to issue a plurality of processing instructions stored in the memory, wherein the processor issues instructions to;

receive a request to create a test environment;

identify real data records based on the request;

generate anonymized data from the real data;

select a subset of the anonymized data based on the request;

generate synthesized data from the subset of anonymized data;

generate a synthetic test environment, wherein generation further includes instructions to;

instantiate user accounts,

populate the test environment with a profile of testing components,

load the synthesized data into the test environment; and

deploy the synthetic test environment to a location specified in the request.

11. An environment testing processor-readable medium storing processor-issuable instructions to:

receive a request to create a test environment;

identify real data records based on the request;

generate anonymized data from the real data;

select a subset of the anonymized data based on the request;

generate synthesized data from the subset of anonymized data;

generate a synthetic test environment, wherein generation further includes instructions to;

instantiate user accounts,

populate the test environment with a profile of testing components,

load the synthesized data into the test environment; and

deploy the synthetic test environment to a location specified in the request.

12. An environment testing system, comprising means to:

means to receive a request to create a test environment;

means to identify real data records based on the request;

means to generate anonymized data from the real data;

means to select a subset of the anonymized data based on the request;

means to generate synthesized data from the subset of anonymized data;

means to generate a synthetic test environment, wherein generation further includes;

means to instantiate user accounts,

means to populate the test environment with a profile of testing components,

means to load the synthesized data into the test environment; and

means to deploy the synthetic test environment to a location specified in the request.

13. An environment deployment processor-implemented method, comprising:

receiving a request to create a deployment environment;

identifying real data records based on the request;

generating varianced data from the real data;

generating a synthetic deployment environment, wherein generation further includes;

instantiating user accounts,

populating the synthetic deployment environment with a profile of deployment components,

loading the varianced data into the synthetic deployment environment; and

deploying the synthetic deployment environment to a location specified in the request.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the deployment environment is used to create a virtual bank.

15. The method of claim 13, wherein the deployment environment is used for generating synthetic gaming deployment environments.

16. The method of claim 13, wherein the deployment environment is used for generating synthetic simulation deployment environments.

17. The method of claim 13, wherein the deployment environment is used for generating synthetic educational deployment environments.

18. The method of claim 13, wherein the deployment environment is used for generating synthetic medical deployment environments.

19. The method of claim 13, wherein the deployment environment is used for quality improvement.

20. An environment deployment apparatus, comprising:

a memory;

a processor disposed in communication with said memory, and configured to issue a plurality of processing instructions stored in the memory, wherein the processor issues instructions to;

receive a request to create a deployment environment;

identify real data records based on the request;

generate varianced data from the real data;

generate a synthetic deployment environment, wherein generation further includes instructions to;

instantiate user accounts,

populate the synthetic deployment environment with a profile of deployment components,

load the varianced data into the synthetic deployment environment; and

deploy the synthetic deployment environment to a location specified in the request.

21. An environment deployment processor-readable medium storing processor-issuable instructions to:

receive a request to create a deployment environment;

identify real data records based on the request;

generate varianced data from the real data;

generate a synthetic deployment environment, wherein generation further includes instructions to;

instantiate user accounts,

populate the synthetic deployment environment with a profile of deployment components,

load the varianced data into the synthetic deployment environment; and

deploy the synthetic deployment environment to a location specified in the request.

22. An environment deployment system, comprising means to:

means to receive a request to create a deployment environment;

means to identify real data records based on the request;

means to generate varianced data from the real data;

means to generate a synthetic deployment environment, wherein generation further includes;

means to instantiate user accounts,

means to populate the synthetic deployment environment with a profile of deployment components,

means to load the varianced data into the synthetic deployment environment; and

means to deploy the synthetic deployment environment to a location specified in the request.

23. A processor-implemented method for synthesizing data, comprising:

receiving a request to create synthesized customer records;

identifying real data records for anonymization;

selecting a source of conjured data for the anonymization of real data records;

replacing real data in the real data records with the selected conjured data;

retrieving anonymized customer records to be synthesized;

creating synthetic customer records with synthetic customer record identifiers to hold anonymized data contained in the anonymized customer records;

copying the anonymized data into the synthetic customer records;

locating, via a processor, in the copied anonymized data customer record identifiers;

replacing the located customer record identifiers with the synthetic customer record identifiers; and

outputting the synthesized customer records.

24. The method of claim 23, wherein the anonymized data contained in the retrieved anonymized customer records is created by:

receiving a request to create anonymized customer records;

retrieving real customer records to be anonymized;

locating, via a processor, in real data contained in the real customer records sensitive customer information;

choosing anonymized customer information to replace the located sensitive customer information according to predefined rules;

replacing the located sensitive customer information with the anonymized customer information; and

outputting the anonymized customer records.

25. The method of claim 24, wherein the sensitive customer information is one of:

a name, an address, a phone number, a fax number, a date, a free text field, a personal identification number.

26. The method of claim 23, further comprising:

associating anonymized data contained in an anonymized customer record with a business constellation, wherein the business constellation is defined by a plurality of equivalence classes; and

creating a synthetic customer record for the anonymized data contained in the anonymized customer record only if the number of previously created synthetic customer records containing anonymized data associated with the business constellation is less than a predefined number.

27. The method of claim 26, wherein an equivalence class is one of:

Title, Business Unit, Branch Office, Nationality, Domicile, Language, Customer Type, Customer Segment.

28. The method of claim 23, further comprising:

retrieving real account records to be synthesized;

creating synthetic account records with synthetic account record identifiers to hold account data contained in the real account records;

copying the account data into the synthetic account records;

locating in the copied account data customer record identifiers;

replacing the located customer record identifiers with the synthetic customer record identifiers;

locating in the copied account data account record identifiers;

replacing the located account record identifiers with the synthetic account record identifiers; and

outputting the synthesized account records.

29. The method of claim 23, further comprising:

retrieving real deposit records to be synthesized;

creating synthetic deposit records with synthetic deposit record identifiers to hold deposit data contained in the real deposit records;

copying the deposit data into the synthetic deposit records;

locating in the copied deposit data customer record identifiers;

replacing the located customer record identifiers with the synthetic customer record identifiers;

locating in the copied deposit data deposit record identifiers;

replacing the located deposit record identifiers with the synthetic deposit record identifiers; and

outputting the synthesized deposit records.

30. The method of claim 23, further comprising:

simulating transactions using the synthesized customer records; and

outputting data representative of the simulated transactions.

31. A system for facilitating development and testing of software applications using synthesized customer records comprising:

a server;

a software application for development and testing;

a development environment running on the server, wherein the development environment is generated by cloning portions of a production environment that are required to run the software application;

a database containing synthesized customer records, wherein;

the database is communicatively connected with the development environment; and

the database provides a source of data for the development environment.

32. The system of claim 31, further comprising a Development and Test Server Zone containing the system and separating the development environment from the production environment.

33. The system of claim 31, wherein the development environment is physically separated from the production environment.

34. The system of claim 31, wherein the development environment is logically separated from the production environment.

35. The system of claim 31, wherein the development environment is decommissioned upon completion of testing.

36. A method for development and testing of software applications using synthesized customer records comprising:

connecting to a development environment with a workstation;

providing authentication information required to access the development environment; and

testing, on the workstation, a software application, wherein testing the software application involves accessing synthesized customer records.

37. The method of claim 36, further comprising installing a FIT image onto the workstation to allow the workstation to connect to the development environment.

38. The method of claim 37, wherein the FIT image is installed in a virtual machine installed on the workstation.

39. The method of claim 36, further comprising:

placing the workstation in an offshore development center; and

establishing a virtual private network tunnel between the offshore development center and the development environment to connect to the development environment.

40. The method of claim 36, wherein security certificates are used to provide authentication information.

41. The method of claim 36, wherein SmartCards are used to provide authentication information.

42. The method of claim 36, wherein only the synthesized customer records required for testing may be accessed.