Managing enterprise software production at scale is no easy task. This is especially true in today’s complex and distributed environment where teams are spread out across multiple geographical areas.

To maintain control over so many moving parts, IT leaders need to break down silos and standardize processes. Luckily, they don’t have to reinvent the wheel to make that happen. For guidance, they can follow the ITIL Release Management Process, courtesy of the IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL).

Keep reading to learn all about ITIL’s approach to release management and how it can help improve your process flow and software quality.

ITIL: A Brief Overview 

ITIL is a set of frameworks that outline various IT processes, including service and asset management. At a high level, ITIL helps companies deliver products and services in a way that ensures they maintain quality and control costs. 

The ITIL framework was drafted in the 1980s by the UK’s Central Computer and Telecommunications Agency (CCTA). Today, after several revisions, it remains the go-to source for IT best practices, with ITIL 4 being the most recent version.

What Is Release Management in ITIL?

ITIL includes release and deployment management within its Service Transition section.

The main purpose of release and deployment management is to plan, schedule, and control releases from end to end. By following these guidelines, you can improve the integrity of your live production environment and manufacture higher-quality software that resonates with the needs of your user base. 

ITIL release management should fall under the guidance of the release manager. This individual should act as the process owner throughout planning and production.

Release Management in ITIL: A Breakdown

Since every company has different needs and objectives, the actual steps your organization should follow might vary. Over time, your company will most likely want to develop its custom release management strategy.

With all this in mind, here’s a general breakdown of how the release management process works.

1. Request 

The first step is to request and vet new features or software changes. At this stage, it’s very important to be selective about what you want to move forward into production. After all, not all requests will have the same level of importance.

Here, it’s also a good idea to use a central repository for collecting and prioritizing requests. This can make it much easier to stay on top of requests and manage changing priorities.

2. Plan

Once you have a general understanding of what you want to prioritize, the next step is to move into the planning phase. 

At this point, you should outline the scope and details of your release. You should also assign roles and create a schedule for executing the release. The schedule should account for building, testing, and deploying, among other things.

This will also give you a solid understanding of whether you have the resources to execute the release.

3. Build 

By now, your team should have a thorough understanding of the scope and demands of the release — and the team members who will be developing it. Once this is lined up, you can move on to the software development stage.

To build, your team will need a dedicated staging environment where engineers can create and iterate freely without impacting live users. The end goal is to create functional code that you can ship for testing and validation. 

Build time can fluctuate depending on the scope of the release. It can take anywhere from a few days to several weeks or longer. As such, you should plan releases to account for potential delays so that you don’t impact other projects.

4. Test

Before you transfer code into a live production environment, you have to make sure that the code is functional.

Good news: There are a variety of tests that engineers run to do this — including user acceptance testing, validation testing, unit testing, integration testing, and smoke testing.

Oftentimes, companies choose to test before production and during production. However, the majority of testing occurs before the software goes live.

5. Deploy

After you thoroughly test your code, the next step is to seamlessly deploy it into a live production environment. 

For this to happen, the release manager needs to approve the release package. After approval, the code will typically transfer to service operations and support.

6. Close

Before you move on to the next build, review the release and collect feedback and evaluations. Measure the feedback and make sure that it aligns with your initial plans.

The 5 Stages of ITIL

The five stages of ITIL include the following.

1. Service Strategy

This stage focuses on defining the overall IT service strategy in alignment with the organization’s business objectives and customer needs. It involves identifying market opportunities, defining service portfolios, and prioritizing investments to deliver value.

2. Service Design

In this stage, IT services are designed to meet the requirements identified in the service strategy. It involves designing service architectures, processes, policies, and documentation to ensure that services are aligned with business needs and can be effectively implemented and supported.

3. Service Transition

Service transition involves transitioning new or modified services into the operational environment while ensuring minimal disruption to ongoing business operations. It includes activities such as release and deployment management, change management, and knowledge management to ensure that changes are implemented smoothly and efficiently.

4. Service Operation

This stage focuses on delivering and managing IT services daily to meet agreed-upon service levels. It involves activities such as incident, problem, event, and access management to ensure that services are delivered effectively and efficiently.

5. Continual Service Improvement (CSI)

CSI is an ongoing stage that continually improves the quality and performance of IT services and processes. It involves monitoring service performance, identifying areas for improvement, and implementing changes to enhance service delivery and customer satisfaction.

Responsibilities in Release Management

Release management, the purview of a release manager, involves a variety of responsibilities to ensure the smooth and efficient delivery of software releases. Let’s explore these in detail.

1. Planning and Coordination

The release manager is responsible for planning the release schedule in alignment with business objectives and ITIL principles.

They coordinate release activities across various teams, ensuring that all stakeholders are informed and involved.

2. Risk Management

Identifying and managing risks associated with the release process is a crucial responsibility of the release manager. They assess potential impacts on systems, services, and users, and implement strategies to mitigate risks effectively.

3. Communication

Effective communication is key to successful release management. The release manager ensures clear communication with stakeholders, keeping them informed about release progress, timelines, and any changes or issues that may arise.

4. Quality Assurance

The release manager collaborates with quality assurance (QA) teams to ensure that releases meet predefined quality standards.

They oversee testing processes, including regression testing, user acceptance testing (UAT), and performance testing, to minimize the risk of defects in production environments.

5. Deployment Oversight

Coordinating the deployment of releases into production environments falls within the release manager’s purview. They work closely with deployment teams to schedule and execute deployments efficiently, minimizing downtime and disruptions to services.

6. Post-Release Evaluation

After a release is deployed, the release manager conducts post-release evaluations to assess its success and identify areas for improvement. They gather feedback from stakeholders and analyze performance metrics to inform future release planning and execution.

Release Management and DevOps

The fusion of Release management and DevOps streamlines software delivery. Collaboration and automation drive efficiency, while feedback loops ensure continuous improvement. Agility enables rapid adaptation to changing demands.

Integrating DevOps principles enhances release cycles, facilitating faster, more reliable deployments, improved collaboration, and greater business agility.

Collaboration and Integration

One of the key principles of DevOps is breaking down silos between development and operations teams and fostering collaboration throughout the software delivery lifecycle. Release Management plays a crucial role in this collaboration by providing a structured framework for planning, coordinating, and deploying releases.

Automation and Continuous Delivery

Release Management processes can benefit significantly from automation, enabling organizations to achieve continuous delivery of software releases with minimal human intervention.

DevOps practices such as infrastructure as code (IaC), automated testing, and deployment automation can be integrated into Release Management workflows to automate release processes end-to-end.

This automation not only speeds up release cycles but also enhances the consistency, reliability, and repeatability of deployments.

Release Management ITIL Best Practices

Release management may seem straightforward. But in practice, it tends to be fast-moving and complex. That being the case, there are many pitfalls to watch out for.

To that end, here are some release management ITIL best practices to keep in mind as you plan and optimize your strategy.

1. Remain Fluid

To be successful with release management, you need to constantly learn and adjust your plan. What works for one build may not necessarily apply to another.

For example, one release may require minimal testing before it goes into production. However, other builds may require extensive testing and rework. Take each build on a case-by-case basis and modify your plan accordingly to achieve optimal results.

2. Minimize User Impact

It’s critical to avoid impacting users when making changes. Be quick and efficient when updating software and try to remediate all bugs and vulnerabilities before the code goes into production. 

3. Lean on Automation

Software production is too fast and complex to do everything by hand. To keep up, it’s necessary to rely on automation throughout the release management process. 

Automation will reduce human errors and allow your team to move at a faster pace. This, in turn, will boost software quality and help prevent errors from sneaking into production.

4. Shift Security Left

A growing number of companies are shifting left and integrating security into their software development process. This strategy involves testing earlier and testing often instead of waiting until the testing phase to identify and eliminate security vulnerabilities.

By shifting left, you can lower production costs and improve security. At the same time, you can build a cybersecurity culture where all team members prioritize security and iterate with best practices in mind.

5. Tighten Access Control

In addition to shifting left, it’s also a good idea to tighten access control — especially when using the public cloud. Consider forming a robust identity access management (IAM) policy to keep track of the various human and non-human identities that can access and control your environments. 

6. Visibility Is Key 

One of the most important things you can do to improve your release management process is to improve visibility. The entire process should take place over a central dashboard with real-time insights into available resources and project statuses. 

By knocking down silos and improving visibility, you will have a much easier time managing resources and keeping projects moving forward.

Streamline Release Management with Enov8

If you’re looking to improve your approach to release management, Enov8 can help.

We provide a purpose-built platform for enterprise release management that gives you a bird’s-eye view of your enterprise release management strategy and enables you to watch development unfold in real-time.

Within the Enov8 platform, you can define enterprise release schedules, onboard projects, manage demand contention, and track projects. The platform also lets you employ implementation plans and identify system requirements.  

With Enov8, release management can become one of your organization’s biggest strengths. But don’t just take our word for it. Instead, take Enov8 for a spin by downloading our ‘Kick Start’ edition today.

Post Author

This post was written by Justin Reynolds. Justin is a freelance writer who enjoys telling stories about how technology, science, and creativity can help workers be more productive. In his spare time, he likes seeing or playing live music, hiking, and traveling.

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Software development is a complex process that requires meticulous attention to detail to ensure that the final product is reliable and of high quality. One of the most critical aspects of this process is testing, and having a dedicated test environment is essential to guaranteeing the accuracy and functionality of software.

Unfortunately, many development teams neglect to establish a dedicated test environment, leading to costly errors and delays in production. 

In this post, we will explore the reasons why a dedicated test environment is crucial for software development teams and provide guidance on how to set one up effectively.

Whether you’re a seasoned developer or a newcomer to the field, this article will offer valuable insights into the importance of testing and the benefits of having a dedicated test environment.

What Is a Test Environment?

A test environment is an isolated and controlled setup used to run software tests without affecting real users or production systems. It provides the necessary hardware, software, network configuration, and data to safely simulate real-world conditions and verify application behavior during testing.

Essentially, you create a copy of the live system so that tests run as if they were being run in the live environment. However, because it’s a copy, you don’t put user data at risk.

Thus, it’s an essential part of any software development strategy.

Most companies set up separate environments for unit testing, system integration testing, and security testing. A test environment can contain an exact copy of the live environment and a copy of a specific software release.

Reading Guide: Understanding the Types of Test Environments

What Are Characteristics of a Good Test Environment?

A good test environment has the following characteristics.

1. It’s a copy of, or very closely resembles, the live environment. This means it includes the same code, data, configuration, operating system, and functionality.
2. It functions as a sandbox. This means changes made in the environment cannot affect the live environment.
3. It’s easy to set up.

But why are test environments so important? Let’s dig in.

Why Are Test Environments Important?

Test environments are an integral part of the development process. Even though we use testing environments to execute and verify tests, there’s much more to know.

Testing ensures that we can test applications per the requirements, and we develop all our software according to specification. For every application, we can divide the testing process into two parts: automated testing and manual testing.

We run automated testing to test the application without any human intervention. In contrast, for manual testing, a human tester tests the application step by step.

A testing environment allows you to test your new software releases to make sure they run smoothly before you roll them out. A virtual testing environment, in particular, protects you against any possible crashes.

This lets you get on with your day-to-day tasks worry-free. It also means you can easily modify or change a testing environment without affecting the live site.

Is a Test Environment the Same as a Staging Environment?

​Do you still have questions about the distinction between test and staging environments? Allow us to clarify.

The test environment is primarily used for debugging features and does not use real data or have security checks in place. In contrast, the staging environment is a subset of the testing environment and is an internal replica of the production environment used to test or demonstrate the entire application.

The staging environment employs genuine data identical to the production environment, but it is not accessible to external users.

What IT Environments Do You Need?

When it comes to software development, there are several IT environments that are typically needed to ensure the quality and effectiveness of the software. These environments include the development environment, test environment, and staging environment.

1. The development environment is where the software is built and tested by the development team. It is typically separate from the production environment to avoid any negative impact on the live system. In the development environment, developers can test new features and functionalities without risking damage to the production environment.
2. The test environment is where the software is tested to ensure it meets the requirements and specifications. This environment is usually an exact replica of the production environment and is used to simulate different scenarios and test the software thoroughly.
3. The staging environment, also known as the pre-production environment, is where the software is tested with real-world data and conditions. This environment is used to verify that the software is ready for deployment in the production environment.

Having these separate environments allows for thorough testing and ensures that any issues are caught before the software is released into the live environment. It also helps to reduce downtime and minimize the risk of user impact.

What Are the 6 Key Elements for Creating a Test Environment?

Creating a good test environment is essential to get quick information about the functionality of a website or application. To create a good test environment, you need to consider the following.

1. Create a Test Environment Management Plan: Start by developing a comprehensive plan that outlines the environment’s structure, goals, and processes. This plan ensures that the environment supports long-term testing needs, accommodates changes, and integrates smoothly with the development lifecycle.
2. Environment design: Design a test environment by selecting a representative sample of the entire application or the entire application.
3. Environment security: The test environment must remain secure from the application under test and from the other applications.
4. Environment automation: Ensure that you can use the environment to automate the testing process.
5. Environment management: Make sure that you can use the environment long term for continual testing.
6. Test Data: Test data is an important element that is often overlooked. It is essential to have a good quality and representative set of data to test the software thoroughly. This data should include realistic scenarios and edge cases to ensure that the software performs as expected in all situations. Additionally, it is crucial to protect the privacy and security of any sensitive data used in testing, particularly if it includes personal or confidential information.

Setting Up a Test Environment: A Structured Approach

Once you understand why test environments are critical, the next step is to establish a structured and repeatable setup process. While the details will vary depending on your organization’s tech stack and governance requirements, most test environment setups follow a similar set of foundational steps.

Below is a high-level walkthrough of what that process typically involves.

1. Define Environment Requirements

Start by identifying what the environment needs to support — such as the application under test, integration points, supported browsers or devices, and test data needs. This step ensures the environment reflects real-world conditions while staying appropriately scoped.

2. Provision Infrastructure

Next, allocate the necessary infrastructure. This could include physical servers, virtual machines, containers, or cloud-based resources. Consider scalability, cost, and availability — especially if you’re supporting multiple teams or parallel test efforts.

3. Configure the Environment

Install and configure all required software, including application components, middleware, databases, and supporting services. Environment variables, test data, and mock services should also be put in place to simulate production-like conditions.

4. Implement Access and Version Control

Control who can access the environment and what components or data they can modify. Apply version control to ensure test environments are consistent with specific code branches, test cycles, or deployment windows.

5. Validate and Monitor

Before handing the environment over for testing, run validation checks to ensure everything is working as expected. Once in use, monitor the environment for configuration drift, performance issues, and unauthorized changes.

Common Challenges in Test Environment Management

These days, test environment management is a complicated and expensive process. If you want to get the most out of your testing, you must ensure that your testing environment is appropriately equipped and managed. However, that’s not always easy. Many businesses run into three common challenges that impact their testing environment.

1. Resource Management

One of the critical challenges for test environment management is the difficulty of managing the resources. Often a testing environment contains physical and virtual resources, and you need to manage both.

The resources include the servers, storage, and network infrastructure. The team has to ensure that the environment is built and maintained appropriately. In addition, they must ensure that it can carry the resources forward into releases and testing.

2. Managing Changes

Another challenge is managing changes in the codebase. For example, as time goes on, you’ll add new resources or new versions of existing ones to the environment. When you make these changes, the team must have a way to track them and document them.

3. Timely Feedback & Poor Communication

Communication is the key to success, or so the saying goes. Lack of communication or collaboration between product or QA managers and  testers can lead to miss critical areas of the application or overlook key business risks.

As testing progresses, testers may not have the opportunity to provide feedback to the project team. This can result in testers not being recognized for their work.

Conclusion

In conclusion, having a dedicated test environment is crucial for software development teams to ensure that their products are reliable and bug-free. It allows developers to test their software in a controlled and safe environment, minimizing the risk of production failures.

By following the steps outlined in this blog post, software development teams can establish a successful test environment that meets their specific needs.

Furthermore, automating the testing process can help improve efficiency and reduce errors. Ongoing maintenance and monitoring of the test environment are also necessary to ensure that it continues to provide value and effectiveness over time.

Ultimately, investing in a dedicated test environment can save time, money, and resources while improving software quality and end-user satisfaction.

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Before you deploy your code to production, it has to undergo several steps.

We often refer to these steps as preproduction. Although you might expect these additional steps to slow down your development process, they help speed up the time to production. When you set up a preproduction environment correctly, you improve the performance of your code. 

Software preproduction done right—it’s the difference between a software development project that makes you proud and one you can’t wait to move on from.

This post will discuss how to do preprod correctly and create a thriving preproduction environment.

What is PreProd?

Preprod is a process by which an organization prepares the environment and infrastructure for each release by performing tests on applications before deployment to production. 

It encompasses all the processes that prepare an application for deployment, such as automated testing, release management, design and architecture, quality assurance testing, and monitoring. Preproduction ensures production readiness, where the company and its departments prepare the environment for each release.

They confirm that an application is error free before deployment. 

The goal of preprod is to build a culture that prevents production problems from happening. In addition, preproduction engineering involves the entire software development life cycle of the application, from inception to release and rollback.

Release management is critical to ensure that each release receives the proper attention and that you find problems early in the development cycle with continuous testing throughout production environments. 

Why Do You Need Preprod?

Preproduction allows you to test your code before deploying it to production. It helps you catch bugs that may otherwise go unnoticed until they’re in the hands of your users.

A successful preproduction process has three key benefits.

1. Engineering Group Confidence

Once you deploy your code to production, it’s too late for you to make changes or fix bugs. However, preprod allows you to do A/B testing and risk-free debugging, after which you ship a well-tested and high-quality application. 

2. User Confidence

Preproduction ensures that you give users an application that works seamlessly when you deploy. 

3. Marketing Confidence

Besides being able to speed up the development of your code, preproduction helps boost market confidence by ensuring that you thoroughly test your software and design it to meet the needs of both investors and consumers.

In addition, it can help ensure that the software meets all the regulatory requirements.

What Is a Preproduction Environment?

A preproduction environment is a copy of your production environment. It allows you to test and catch bugs in your code before pushing it to the production environment. 

Before deployment, some teams use a staging environment to test code and catch bugs before going live. Others follow a continuous delivery process and deploy code to an integration environment that’s tested before being used in production. 

How Is Preproduction Different from Other Strategies?

Preproduction combines various strategies, including staging, QA, and test environments. 

The purpose of staging is to mirror your production environment as closely as possible. It allows you to test your code in a live-like environment before you push it to the production environment. 

QA environments are preproduction environments used for manual testing. They do not represent your production environment and are often locked down or used by specific teams. 

Test environments mainly test code functionality and are not designed to mirror production. They are not the same as preproduction environments, which reflect the production environment. Preproduction environments should be as close to production environments as possible. 

Preproduction Checklist and Implementation

The preproduction checklist includes items that need to be completed in a preproduction environment before deploying to production. It helps you catch bugs before they go live and ensures that your code is ready to be deployed.  

1. Code review: how you ensure code quality and find bugs. Its purpose is to prevent mistakes from happening and helps detect technical debt.
2. Code testing: written to verify that you’ve achieved a specific outcome of an operation.
3. Code metrics: the numbers that are associated with software quality. They are a means to compare variables and show progress toward objectives.
4. Automated deployment: helping teams avoid manual tasks by building pipelines and test runners in deployment environments.

Continuous Integration and Test Automation

Once you’ve set up your preproduction environment, you can start testing your code. You should test your code to verify that it meets the desired quality standards and identify bugs and issues.

At this stage, you can also fully automate your testing process. The goal of continuous integration is to test the code as many times as you intend to deploy. This means you’ll test the code in a preproduction environment as soon as it’s ready for testing. 

When setting up continuous integration for preproduction testing, set up the preproduction environment to appear identical to the production environment. This will allow you to test the code in a stage that’s as close to the production environment as possible. 

Continuous integration helps you quickly identify bugs, issues, and problems with the code and make adjustments and fixes before deploying the code to the production environment. 

Auto Release and Release Management

With auto release, you set up the preproduction environment to automatically deploy your application. You can also use release management to release the application to the preproduction environment. Once you release your application to preproduction, test it. 

Release management and continuous integration work together to ensure you test your code promptly. 

You also use auto release to release the application to the production environment. This can be useful if you have a one-button release strategy or a manual release strategy that requires someone in the office. With auto release, you can release the code to the production environment without needing to have someone in the office. 

Monitoring

Monitoring allows you to look for potential problems, issues, and bugs before deploying code to production by checking the application’s health, performance, and general availability.

Through monitoring, you can identify potential bottlenecks in the application and make adjustments and fixes before pushing it to production.

What Tools Do You Use for Preproduction?

Managing a preproduction environment effectively requires a well-orchestrated set of tools across the software delivery lifecycle. Below are the key categories and examples of tools commonly used to ensure preproduction environments are stable, representative, and ready for testing.

1. Source Code Management Tools

Version control is foundational. Tools like Git, GitHub, GitLab, or Bitbucket help manage code branches, track changes, and collaborate across teams while maintaining environment consistency.

2. Test Management Platforms

Preproduction testing relies on structured test plans and traceability. Common platforms include Azure DevOps Test Plans, Micro Focus ALM, TestRail, and other tools that help define, execute, and track test cases and results.

3. Build Automation and CI/CD Tools

Automating builds and deployments into preproduction ensures repeatability and reduces errors. Tools like Jenkins, GitHub Actions, GitLab CI/CD, and Apache Maven help automate the build process, while Docker and Kubernetes aid with deployment orchestration.

4. Test Data Management (TDM) Tools

Preproduction environments need sanitized, realistic test data. Tools like Enov8 Test Data Manager, Delphix, or Informatica TDM allow teams to create, mask, and manage test data efficiently across environments.

5. Service and Data Virtualization

When live dependencies aren’t available, virtualization tools like VirtualizeMe, Parasoft Virtualize, or Broadcom Service Virtualization simulate missing services and datasets — keeping tests unblocked and reliable.

6. Automated Testing Frameworks

Automated testing is essential for validating builds in preproduction. Teams commonly use Selenium, Playwright, Cypress, Postman, JMeter, or TestNG to automate UI, API, and load testing scenarios. 

Preproduction Best Practices

Preproduction isn’t just a staging area—it’s a critical gatekeeper before deployment. These best practices will help your team manage preproduction environments with more reliability and less risk.

1. Clearly Define Your Preproduction Environment

Create a dedicated environment that mimics production as closely as possible. Use consistent naming conventions and make the environment’s role clear across teams to prevent accidental misuse.

2. Assign Environment Ownership

Appoint a responsible party or team—such as DevOps or an Environment Manager—to govern configuration, access, refreshes, and incident response. Defined ownership keeps the environment stable and accountable.

3. Standardize Tooling Across Environments

Use the same deployment, monitoring, and observability tools in both preprod and production. This helps uncover tool-related issues early and ensures teams are testing in the same conditions users will experience.

4. Keep Preprod in Sync with Production

Regularly refresh preproduction configurations and data from production. Tools that support infrastructure-as-code and automated environment cloning can help reduce drift and ensure accuracy.

5. Use Production-Equivalent Infrastructure

Run preproduction on the same or similar infrastructure—whether physical, virtual, or containerized—as production. Differences in instance types, network setups, or scaling behavior can lead to false confidence.

6. Simulate Real-World Testing Scenarios

Make tests in preprod as realistic as possible. Include integrated system testing, performance testing, and business-critical user journeys that reflect real-world behavior.

7. Create Readiness Checklists

A pre-release checklist helps ensure nothing is missed. Include environment health, database readiness, access provisioning, rollback planning, and stakeholder sign-off as part of the process.

8. Document and Share Your Process

Maintain living documentation for how preproduction is set up, tested, and validated. Make this available to all stakeholders so that handoffs, audits, and incident investigations are seamless.

Conclusion

Preproduction environments allow you to test your code and make sure it works properly before deploying it to your production environment. When you set up a preproduction environment correctly, you improve the performance and quality of your code.

Innovate with Enov8, kick start better management of your non-production IT environments today!

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Press Release

Sydney, Australia — April 2025 — Enov8, a pioneer in IT & Test Environment, Release, and Data Management, has been recognised by Bloor Research in its latest report for redefining how modern enterprises manage complex IT landscapes.

The Bloor Research review spotlights Enov8’s flagship Environment Management platform, describing it as a holistic and scalable solution that brings clarity, control, and automation to enterprise DevOps and delivery operations. With a proprietary blend of visualisation, orchestration, and compliance-aware capabilities, Enov8 offers a unified toolset that integrates seamlessly into existing pipelines and ITSM ecosystems.

David Norfolk, Practice Leader at Bloor, notes:

“Enov8 may appear more sophisticated than other solutions initially, but its structured approach, combined with the Environment Management Maturity Index (EMMi), makes it a powerful foundation for continuous operational improvement.”

Key platform strengths highlighted include:

• Centralised CMDB and architecture blueprinting
• Dynamic booking and contention management
• DevOps automation and no-code environment health checks
• Data masking, synthetic data generation, and compliance validation
• Financial analytics to identify overprovisioning and cost inefficiencies

Bloor also validated Enov8’s financial impact, estimating potential customer savings of over US$5 million annually, through reduced environment sprawl, higher test productivity, and faster delivery timelines.

Originally founded in 2013, Enov8 services global enterprises in financial services, telecom, government, and other regulated sectors. Its EMMi framework and platform capabilities empower IT teams to move from reactive management to proactive governance and strategic delivery alignment.

“With this recognition from Bloor, we’re proud to see validation of our philosophy,” said Niall Crawford, CEO of Enov8. “Environment Management isn’t just about provisioning—it’s about governing complexity, reducing risk, and enabling innovation at scale.”
Read the full Bloor report here.

Press Releases

Bloor Recognizes Enov8 as a Leader in IT Environment Management Innovation

Press Release Sydney, Australia — April 2025 — Enov8, a pioneer in IT & Test Environment, Release, and Data Management, has been recognised by Bloor Research in its latest report for redefining how modern enterprises manage complex IT landscapes. The Bloor...

Bloor Research Reviews Enov8 Test Data Manager for Advanced Test Data Management

Sydney, Australia – March 2025 – Enov8, a leader in IT & Test Environment Management solutions, is pleased to announce that Bloor Research has published an independent InBrief on the Enov8 Test Data Manager (TDM), recognizing its innovation and impact on secure,...

Enov8 Launches Live APM – Marrying Strategy With Delivery

Live APM Unifies Application Portfolio Management with IT Delivery to Drive Visibility, Optimization, and Acceleration SYDNEY, AU / ACCESSWIRE / December 23, 2024 / Enov8, a leader in Environment, Release & Data Management solutions, proudly announces the launch...

Bloor Research Reviews Enov8 VirtualizeMe (vME) for Database Virtualization

SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA / Dec 01, 2024 /— Enov8 is proud to announce a groundbreaking milestone as Bloor Research publishes an independent InBrief on Enov8 VirtualizeMe (vME), highlighting its game-changing potential in database virtualization and its critical role in...

Enov8 Launches Operations Hub in Bengaluru, India

Bengaluru, India / Dec 01, 2024 / We are pleased to announce the establishment of Enov8 Operations in Bengaluru, India—a strategic move to strengthen our commitment to partners and clients in the region. Bengaluru, as a global hub for technology and innovation,...

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The post Bloor Recognizes Enov8 as a Leader in IT Environment Management Innovation appeared first on .

In today’s digital age, data security and privacy are crucial concerns for individuals and organizations alike. With the ever-increasing amount of sensitive information being collected and stored, it’s more important than ever to protect this data from unauthorized access and breaches.

One of the methods used to ensure data security is data tokenization.

Data tokenization is a process that involves replacing sensitive data with a non-sensitive equivalent, known as a token.

This token can be stored and processed without revealing the original data, making it a secure way to handle sensitive information. In this blog post, we’ll explore what data tokenization is, how it works, and its benefits. We’ll also take a look at how tokenization is used in various industries and discuss some of the challenges and considerations involved in implementing it.

What is Data Tokenization?

Data tokenization is a technique used in data security to protect sensitive data by replacing it with a unique identifier or token.

The token is then used in place of the original data in order to perform transactions or other operations, while the original data remains protected.

Tokenization is often used to protect credit card information, social security numbers, and other types of sensitive data. When a user enters sensitive information into a system, the system converts the data into a token and stores the token instead of the actual data. The token can then be used to process transactions, while the sensitive data remains secure.

Data Tokenization vs Data Masking

Data tokenization and data masking are both popular techniques used to protect sensitive information, but they serve different purposes and function in distinct ways.

Data tokenization replaces sensitive data with unique, non-sensitive tokens that have no meaningful value outside the tokenization system. These tokens are mapped to the original data in a secure token vault, allowing the original information to be retrieved only when authorized. This approach ensures that sensitive data is never stored or transmitted in its original form, reducing the risk of exposure even if systems are compromised.

In contrast, data masking involves obscuring or modifying sensitive data within a dataset so that it remains usable for testing or analysis but does not reveal real information. Masking can be static, where data is altered permanently in a non-production environment, or dynamic, where data is masked on-the-fly when accessed. Unlike tokenization, masked data is still structurally similar to the original but altered to prevent sensitive details from being visible.

While both methods enhance data security and privacy, tokenization offers stronger protection by completely decoupling tokens from the original data, making it nearly impossible to reverse without access to the token vault. Masking is often simpler to implement and useful for scenarios where data usability is critical, such as software testing or analytics, but it may not offer the same level of security as tokenization.

Choosing between tokenization and masking depends on the use case, regulatory requirements, and the level of security needed. In many cases, organizations employ both methods together to balance security with usability.

Benefits of Data Tokenization

Data tokenization offers several benefits over other data security methods. Here are some of the key advantages of using the technique.

1. Increased Security and Privacy

Data tokenization significantly enhances security by replacing sensitive data with non-sensitive placeholders, or tokens. Since the original data is never stored alongside the token, even if a system is breached, hackers cannot retrieve the actual sensitive information.

This reduces the attack surface and minimizes the risk of data exposure. Unlike encryption, where the encrypted data can sometimes be reversed if keys are compromised, tokenization completely decouples the token from the original data, providing a higher level of privacy protection.

2. Flexibility Across Multiple Data Types

One of the strengths of tokenization is its ability to protect a wide variety of sensitive data types beyond just credit card numbers. It can secure personally identifiable information (PII) such as social security numbers, driver’s license numbers, email addresses, and even proprietary business data.

This flexibility means organizations can implement a unified data security strategy across many systems and use cases, rather than relying on disparate protection methods.

3. Scalability for Large and Complex Datasets

Tokenization systems are designed to handle massive volumes of data efficiently. Whether an organization manages thousands or millions of records, tokenization scales to meet demand without a loss of performance. This scalability is essential for enterprises processing large transactional databases or big data environments, enabling them to secure sensitive information without slowing down operations or increasing latency.

4. Cost-Effectiveness Compared to Encryption

While encryption remains a powerful security tool, it often requires considerable computational resources for data processing and key management, which can increase operational costs. Tokenization typically demands less processing power because it replaces data with tokens rather than performing complex cryptographic operations.

This efficiency translates into lower storage and processing expenses, making tokenization a cost-effective solution, especially for high-volume transactional environments.

5. Simplified Compliance with Regulations

Tokenization can streamline compliance efforts by minimizing the scope of sensitive data that falls under regulatory frameworks such as PCI DSS (Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard), HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act), and GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation). Since tokens are not considered sensitive data, many systems that handle only tokens fall outside the scope of stringent compliance requirements.

This reduction in compliance scope lowers audit complexity and cost, while still ensuring sensitive data is protected.

6. Improved Customer Trust and Brand Reputation

By safeguarding sensitive customer data through tokenization, organizations demonstrate a strong commitment to privacy and security. This can enhance customer trust and loyalty, which are critical differentiators in today’s competitive marketplace. Avoiding data breaches and the associated negative publicity also protects the company’s brand reputation, preventing costly recovery efforts and potential loss of business.

7. Seamless Integration with Existing Systems

Tokenization solutions can often be integrated with existing IT infrastructure and applications with minimal disruption. Because tokens maintain the same format and length as the original data, they can be used in legacy systems, databases, and applications without requiring extensive changes.

This compatibility helps organizations adopt tokenization without the high costs and risks associated with major system overhauls.

In summary, data tokenization offers several benefits, including increased security and privacy, flexibility and scalability, cost-effectiveness, and compliance with regulations.

How is Data Tokenization Used?

Data tokenization is used in various industries and applications, including:

1. Finance: Data tokenization is used in the finance industry to protect sensitive financial information, such as credit card numbers and bank account details. Financial institutions can ensure that sensitive information is protected from fraud and breaches.
2. Healthcare: Data tokenization is used in the healthcare industry to protect patient data, such as medical records and personal identifying information. This helps healthcare organizations comply with HIPAA regulations and ensure that patient data is handled securely.
3. E-commerce: Data tokenization is used in e-commerce applications to protect customer payment information, such as credit card details. By tokenizing, e-commerce businesses can provide a secure and reliable payment experience for their customers.
4. IoT devices: Data tokenization is used in IoT (Internet of Things) devices to protect sensitive data transmitted over the internet, such as device identification and user credentials. Via tokenization, IoT device manufacturers can ensure that sensitive data is protected from unauthorized access.

Real World Use Cases

Here are some practical examples of how real-world organizations use data tokenization.

• Google: Google uses data tokenization to protect user data in its cloud storage services. Google can thus ensure that user data is protected from unauthorized access.
• Target: Target uses data tokenization to protect customer payment information in its checkout system. This helps to prevent fraud and breaches, ensuring that customer data is handled securely.

Data tokenization is used in various industries and applications, including finance, healthcare, e-commerce, and IoT devices.

Challenges, Considerations & Disadvantages

While data tokenization offers several benefits, there are also some challenges and considerations that organizations should be aware of when implementing this data security method.

These include:

1. Ensuring the security and integrity of the tokenization process.
2. Managing the lifecycle of tokens.
3. Choosing the right tokenization solution.
4. Complying with industry regulations.

To ensure the security and integrity of the tokenization process, organizations must implement appropriate security measures, such as using strong encryption algorithms, restricting access to tokenized data, and regularly monitoring tokenization processes.

Tokens have a finite lifespan, and organizations must manage their lifecycle to ensure proper deletion when no longer needed.

Choosing the right tokenization solution depends on factors such as the level of security required, the type of sensitive data being tokenized, and the scalability of the solution. Organizations must also ensure that their tokenization processes comply with relevant regulations and standards.

The disadvantages of tokenization include the potential need for additional resources, such as processing power and storage, especially when tokenizing large data sets. Tokenization can increase complexity, making it more difficult to manage and maintain data, and may have legal implications in certain industries or applications.

Additionally, the security of the token vault, which stores the mapping between the original data and the token, is critical to the security of the tokenized data. If the vault is compromised, hackers could potentially access the original data.

Finally, tokenization is not foolproof and can still be susceptible to hacking attempts.

Conclusion

Data security and privacy are crucial concerns in today’s digital age. Data tokenization is one way to protect sensitive information from unauthorized access and breaches.

Enov8 Test Data Manager offers a range of powerful methods, including data masking, data ciphering (reversible & non-reversible), and encryption methods, to help organizations implement robust data security measures. These methods can help organizations comply with industry regulations and ensure data security and privacy.

However, implementing data security measures can present some challenges, such as ensuring the security and integrity of the data security process, managing the lifecycle of data security measures, choosing the right data security solution, and complying with industry regulations.

Organizations must carefully consider these factors when implementing data security measures and using TDM tools like Enov8 Test Data Manager to protect sensitive information.

Post Author

Andrew Walker is a software architect with 10+ years of experience. Andrew is passionate about his craft, and he loves using his skills to design enterprise solutions for Enov8, in the areas of IT Environments, Release & Data Management.

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Are you a product owner or technologist looking to understand the role of a steering committee and how it can benefit your organization? Or maybe you’re just wandering by and curious about the topic. Either way, we’ll explain the steering committee in detail.

This article provides a technologist’s view on what it is and how it can be used to help guide decision–making. You will learn about the purpose of the committee, its composition, and the responsibilities of its members.

By the end of this article, you will have a better understanding of how a steering committee can help your organization achieve its goals.

What is a Steering Committee?

A steering committee is a group of experts, authority figures and senior stakeholders in a project or organization who are part of IT or other governance.

This committee meets periodically to discuss the direction, scope, budget, timeliness, and methods of the project, helping to set the strategic direction and ensure that it is followed. As members have a significant stake in how the project is managed, the decisions made by the steering committee are important for the success of the project and in aligning the project manager and project goals.

Who Is on a Steering Committee?

The makeup of the committee depends on the scope of the project or product, but generally it consists of senior executives, external stakeholders, and experts. For example, a project steering committee may include a project manager and external stakeholders from the customer, while an organizational steering committee could include executives, board members, and department heads.

Regardless of the particular makeup of the committee, you should follow a few guidelines. Most importantly, there should be a chairperson elected by the committee who does not own the project they are steering.

This allows for impartial chairing.

Additionally, the steering committee should consist of diverse members who each equally represent the various functions overseen by the committee. This encourages open discussion and the sharing of different opinions and ideas.

Clear goals and a well-managed agenda are also essential for the committee to function properly. By following these guidelines, steering committees can ensure their goals are met and the project is successful.

What Is the Committee’s Role?

The role of a steering committee is to offer strategic guidance, promote collaboration, and assist in the decision-making process. By providing clear direction and support to project managers, they ensure that projects remain on track and meet company objectives.

They also act as a mediator between stakeholders and project managers, ensuring that all perspectives are taken into account when making decisions. Ultimately, the steering committee is responsible for ensuring that the organization’s projects are successful and in line with its overall goals.

Are Steering Committees only for Business Decision?

Steering committees are not only for business decisions, and they can be highly beneficial from a technology perspective as well. They can provide a comprehensive approach to technology development and implementation, involving key stakeholders from different departments to ensure that the technology aligns with the organization’s goals and objectives.

As an example, organizations may include: steering committee as part of the product lifecycle management (PLM).

How Steering Meetings & PLMs may Fit Together

Steering committee meetings may be included as part of product lifecycle management, particularly during development and launch phases. These meetings provide guidance to ensure that the product aligns with the organization’s goals and objectives, mitigate risks associated with technology implementation and maximize the potential value of the product.

During development, they can provide direction on progress and decisions. During launch, they can advise on marketing and distribution strategies and monitor performance. In short, steering committee meetings are a valuable tool for product teams during development and launch to help ensure the successful release of the product.

What are the Benefits of a Steering Committee?

From a product or technology perspective, benefits include the following.

1. Strategic Alignment

A steering committee plays a crucial role in ensuring that the product or technology development aligns with the organization’s overarching strategy, business objectives, and long-term goals. By bringing together leaders and stakeholders from diverse departments—such as finance, marketing, IT, and operations—the committee provides a holistic view of how the initiative fits within the broader organizational context.

This alignment helps prevent resource misallocation and supports prioritization that drives the company’s strategic vision forward.

2. Risk Mitigation

One of the key advantages of having a steering committee is its ability to proactively identify and manage risks. Members leverage their varied expertise to spot potential roadblocks, technical challenges, or operational issues before they escalate.

Early detection allows for the development of contingency plans, adjustments in project scope, or reallocation of resources, significantly reducing the chances of costly delays or failures during development or implementation phases.

3. Enhanced Decision-Making

Steering committees provide a structured forum for critical decision-making throughout the product or technology lifecycle. By drawing on a cross-functional team of experts, the committee ensures that decisions—such as resource distribution, budget approvals, and timeline adjustments—are well-informed and balanced.

This collective insight leads to more effective governance, greater accountability, and decisions that align with both project and organizational goals.

4. Improved Communication and Transparency

A steering committee acts as a vital communication bridge between the development teams and the wider organization. It facilitates clear, consistent updates on project status, milestones, and deliverables, helping to manage expectations and build trust across departments.

This transparency reduces misunderstandings, aligns stakeholders on objectives, and ensures that any emerging issues or changes are communicated promptly and effectively.

5. Maximizing Value Creation

By involving key stakeholders throughout the development process, steering committees help ensure that the final product or technology truly meets customer needs and market demands. This collaborative approach increases the likelihood that the solution will deliver meaningful business value, enhance user satisfaction, and achieve a strong return on investment.

The committee’s guidance helps prioritize features and functionalities that create maximum impact.

6. Resource Optimization

Steering committees oversee the allocation and utilization of resources, including budget, personnel, and technology. Their oversight helps prevent resource wastage and ensures that teams have what they need to succeed. By continuously reviewing resource commitments against project progress, committees can make timely adjustments to maintain efficiency and avoid bottlenecks.

7. Facilitating Change Management

Introducing new products or technologies often requires organizational change. Steering committees support this transition by anticipating the impact on existing processes and culture.

They help coordinate training, stakeholder engagement, and communication plans, easing adoption and minimizing resistance. Their involvement fosters smoother change management and higher adoption rates.

8. Accountability and Governance

Steering committees establish clear governance structures that define roles, responsibilities, and expectations. This framework promotes accountability at all levels, from leadership to project teams.

By regularly monitoring progress and holding members accountable for deliverables, committees ensure that the initiative stays on track and meets quality standards.

Steering committees provide essential oversight and guidance to ensure projects align with organizational strategy while mitigating risks. They enhance decision-making by bringing diverse expertise together, improve communication across teams, and help maximize the value delivered by new products or technologies. Additionally, steering committees optimize resource use, facilitate effective change management, and promote accountability through clear governance.

But at the end of the day, they increase the likelihood of successful project outcomes.

How Can Technology & Product Teams Prepare for a Successful Steering Committee Meeting?

To ensure a successful steering committee meeting, it is important for technology and product teams to prepare thoroughly. Here are several tips on how those involved in the project can get ready:

1. Define the purpose of the meeting.

Before the meeting, the technology and product teams should clarify the objective of the meeting and the topics that will be discussed. This will help them prepare relevant information and data to present to the committee.

2. Share the vision.

Technology and product teams should clearly articulate the vision for the project and how it will benefit the organization. They should also explain how the project fits into the overall value stream of the organization. This will help to ensure that everyone is on the same page and understands why this project is important.

3. Provide progress updates.

Technology and product teams should provide the steering committee with regular progress updates on the project’s status. This includes information on milestones achieved, project quality, any setbacks, and any changes in timelines, budget, or scope.

4. Identify and prepare for key decisions.

The technology and product teams should anticipate any key decisions that need to be made during the steering committee meeting and prepare a thorough presentation that covers all the relevant information and options available.

5. Provide data-driven insights.

The technology and product teams should provide data-driven insights and analytics to support their proposals or recommendations. This will help the steering committee make well-informed decisions based on accurate data. 

Tip* ‘Enterprise Intelligence’ Tools like Enov8’s IT Environment Manager & Release Manager can provide powerful insights for these kinds of occasions.

6. Prepare for Q&A

The steering committee members may have questions, concerns or recommendations, so the technology and product teams should be prepared to answer them. They should also be prepared to address any potential issues or risks that may arise.

Overall, preparing for an IT steering committee requires a collaborative effort from technology and product teams.

By ensuring that they are well-prepared, they can deliver key information the steering committee oversees, present progress updates, key decisions, data-driven insights, and address concerns or recommendations, which will help the steering committee members make informed decisions and provide direction for the project.

Steering Committee Meetings – Wrapping it Up

Steering Committees are an essential part of any project, and they play a key role in the successful development of products or technologies.

By providing input from multiple stakeholders, ensuring alignment with organizational goals, acting as a communication channel between teams and the broader organization, and ensuring that customer needs are met, steering committees can help maximize value creation while also keeping projects on track.

Technology and product teams should ensure that they are well-prepared for steering committee meetings, so that they can present accurate data and insights to support their proposals and address any concerns or recommendations from committee members.

With proper preparations, IT steering committees can help organization achieve their technological goals in a timely manner.

Post Author

Andrew Walker is a software architect with 10+ years of experience. Andrew is passionate about his craft, and he loves using his skills to design enterprise solutions for Enov8, in the areas of IT Environments, Release & Data Management.

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In the realm of software development, ensuring the reliability and functionality of applications is of paramount importance. Central to this process is software testing, which helps identify bugs, glitches, and other issues that could mar the user experience.

A critical aspect of software testing best practice is maintaining healthy test environments that mimic real-world usage scenarios.

In this post, we will delve into the concept of smoke testing (aka shakeout testing), a valuable technique for quickly assessing the health of your test environments.

What is Smoke Testing? The General Theory

Smoke testing, also known as build verification testing, is a preliminary testing phase that aims to determine if the most essential features of an application are working as intended. It involves running a subset of test cases to “smoke out” any major issues that could potentially disrupt further testing.

The primary objective of smoke testing is to catch show-stopping defects early in the development cycle. By doing so, it prevents wasting time on more extensive testing if the basic functionalities are flawed.

It’s important to note that smoke testing is not exhaustive.

It targets core functionalities and critical paths, not every single feature. Smoke testing can be executed either manually or through automated scripts. Automated smoke tests offer repeatability and speed, while manual tests allow for exploratory assessment.

Basics of Smoke Testing: Getting Started

Choose test cases that encompass the core functionalities of the application. These might include login, basic navigation, and primary user interactions.

Ensure that the test environment closely mimics the production environment. This includes using the same hardware, software, and configurations to avoid false positives or negatives.

Run the selected test cases to validate their functionality. The focus is on quick execution to catch glaring issues. If all selected test cases pass, it suggests that the application’s basic functions are operational.

A failure indicates the presence of critical defects that need immediate attention.

Examples of Smoke Tests

Smoke tests focus on verifying the core functionality of an application quickly to ensure that critical features are working before deeper testing begins. Here are some common examples of smoke tests that teams typically perform.

1. User Login and Authentication. Verify that users can successfully log in and log out, including handling invalid credentials and session management.
2. Navigation Between Key Screens. Test that users can move seamlessly between main sections or pages without errors or crashes.
3. Basic Data Entry and Submission. Check that users can input data into essential forms and submit successfully, with appropriate confirmation or success messages.
4. Critical API or Backend Services Availability. Confirm that vital backend services or APIs respond correctly and provide valid data.
5. Application Launch and Load Time. Ensure the application launches properly and loads within an acceptable timeframe without errors.
6. Basic User Interface Elements Load Correctly. Verify that essential UI components such as buttons, menus, and input fields render and function as expected.

Performing these smoke tests helps teams quickly identify major issues that could block further testing or usage, ensuring that the application is fundamentally stable before progressing.

Benefits of Smoke Testing

Smoke testing is an essential quality assurance practice that helps ensure software stability by quickly identifying critical issues early in the development cycle. The practice not only saves time and resources but also promotes collaboration and contributes to delivering a higher-quality product.

Below are the key benefits of smoke testing.

1. Early Detection of Major Issues

By running smoke tests early, teams can catch critical defects that could derail the entire build. Identifying these issues upfront prevents flawed builds from progressing further in the testing pipeline, saving significant time and effort.

2. Reduction in Rework and Project Delays

Detecting critical defects before more extensive testing begins reduces the need for costly rework. This early feedback loop helps avoid cascading problems, which can cause project delays and increase expenses.

3. Cost Savings

By minimizing wasted testing on unstable builds, smoke testing reduces unnecessary expenditure. It ensures that resources are focused only on builds that meet a basic level of stability, optimizing overall project budgets.

4. Enhanced Collaboration Between Teams

Regular smoke testing fosters better communication and collaboration between development and testing teams. Sharing early feedback on critical issues creates a shared responsibility for quality and encourages quicker resolution.

5. Improved Product Quality

By addressing major defects early, smoke testing contributes to a more stable and reliable product. This proactive approach leads to fewer bugs in later stages, resulting in a higher-quality final release.

6. Increased User Satisfaction and Trust

Delivering a stable and functional product enhances user confidence and satisfaction. Smoke testing helps ensure that critical functionalities work as expected, laying the foundation for a positive user experience and trust in the software.

Best Practices for Effective Smoke Testing

Here are some best practices to bring to bear in your efforts.

1. Define clear criteria: establish unambiguous pass/fail criteria for Smoke Tests to minimize subjectivity.
2. Regular execution: run smoke tests after every significant code change or build. This maintains a consistent quality assessment throughout development.
3. Documentation: document the selected test cases, their outcomes, and any issues found. This historical record aids in understanding the application’s progress.
4. Collaboration: foster collaboration between developers and testers. Their combined insights lead to better test case selection and more accurate interpretations.

Exploring Enov8 Environment Manager

As you seek to optimize your test environment management practices, consider leveraging Enov8 Environment Manager. This comprehensive solution offers a suite of features tailored to ensure the robustness and efficiency of your testing ecosystems.

• Environment Blueprinting/Modelling: Enov8 facilitates the creation of detailed blueprints or models of your test environments. These visual representations provide insights into components and configurations, aiding in the identification of potential vulnerabilities.
• Health Dashboards: Gain real-time insights into the status of your test environments through Enov8’s intuitive health dashboards. Effortlessly monitor health metrics and promptly address any anomalies.
• Notification Capabilities: Stay informed about the health of your test environments with Enov8’s versatile notification capabilities. Receive alerts via email or platforms like Slack, enabling swift responses to emerging issues.
• Inbuilt Test Synthetics using BBOT: Enov8’s BBOT module empowers you to create rapid test synthetics. These tests validate platform availability for DevTest, streamlining your testing workflows.

Enov8 Health Check Screenshot

Conclusion

In the intricate landscape of software development, smoke testing stands as a sentinel guarding against the infiltration of major defects. By focusing on the essential, it paves the way for smoother testing processes, higher-quality software, and reliable test environments.

Remember, the health of your application and your testing ecosystem are intricately intertwined. Incorporate smoke testing into your testing regimen and consider exploring tools like Enov8 Environment Manager to further optimize your testing practices.

Post Author

Jane Temov is an IT Environments Evangelist at Enov8, specializing in IT and Test Environment Management, Test Data Management, Data Security, Disaster Recovery, Release Management, Service Resilience, Configuration Management, DevOps, and Infrastructure/Cloud Migration. Jane is passionate about helping organizations optimize their IT environments for maximum efficiency.

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The benefits of using cloud environments to store and access data over the Internet has been highly beneficial for many businesses. Cloud environments help both start-ups and enterprises scale up conveniently.

However, as with other major advancements, the convenience of sharing and storing data over the Internet exposes businesses to several data security threats. This blog post addresses one such threat, namely data leakage.

Here’s what this post will help you understand:

1. What data leakage is
2. Common causes of data leakage
3. How to prevent data leakage
4. How data leakage affects organizations at different hierarchical levels

What Is Data Leakage?

Briefly, data leakage is the act of leaking confidential information from within an organization to the outside world. Such incidents occur mostly over the Internet on cloud platforms.

It often happens when an employee working in an organization unintentionally or intentionally releases sensitive data about the company to the outside. This can occur through an email transfer, sharing documents via the cloud, and so on.

The employee does not necessarily have to leak the information. He or she may simply create a window of opportunity (if the employee has malicious intentions) to grant access to an external, unauthorized party.

The key point here is that data leakage occurs from the inside-out, i.e., it is initiated from within the organization and sent to the outside world and/or to unauthorized internal users and vendors.

Data leakage is a serious security threat that can jeopardize the reputation and efficacy of an organization. It can be especially damaging if the organization stores highly confidential customer data such as credit or debit card details. Furthermore, data leaks can have varying impacts, depending on the size and type of the organization.

(Side note: this is not to be confused with the concept of data leakage as it pertains to machine learning)

Data Leakage vs. Data Breach: What’s the Difference?

While both data leakage and data breaches involve unauthorized exposure of sensitive information, they differ in intent and detection.

Data leakage often refers to the accidental or inadvertent loss of data within or outside an organization, such as through misconfigured systems or careless handling.

In contrast, a data breach typically involves a deliberate, malicious attack by external hackers or insiders aiming to steal or exploit data.

Understanding the distinction helps organizations tailor their security measures to both prevent accidental leaks and defend against targeted attacks.

9 Common Causes of Data Leakage

Data leakage is associated with an employee of the organization. While there isn’t much that an organization can do to stop employees with malicious intent, there are certain measures that can prevent data leakage.

Data leaks are facilitated by following.

1. Mistakes by IT staff

More often than not, the IT staff updates the organization’s software arrangement and reconfigures the setup. At times, the staff incorrectly configures the system, leaving loopholes and potential network gaps. These loopholes become easy gateways for data leakage.

2. Granting Unnecessary Access Credentials

Organizations sometimes lose track of the access credentials it provides to employees. And sometimes employees at the higher-level grant access to private documents and files to other members of the team for work-related tasks.

When this happens, sensitive data floats through multiple levels of the organization. This makes it much easier for an employee with malicious intent to threaten data security.

3. Not Using Multi-Factor-Authentication Protocols

By following simple data security policies, an organization can prevent catastrophic data leakage. For instance, using two-factor or multi-factor authentication when logging on to applications on cloud platforms can create an additional layer of protection.

Such policies can protect against malicious employees who try to access the drive or email accounts of the organization in order to leak confidential data.

4. Use of Unsecured or Personal Devices

Employees accessing corporate data from personal laptops, smartphones, or tablets that lack proper security controls can inadvertently expose sensitive information. These devices may be infected with malware, lack encryption, or connect through unsecured networks, creating weak links in the organization’s security perimeter.

5. Phishing and Social Engineering Attacks

Employees can be tricked into revealing credentials or downloading malicious software through phishing emails or social engineering tactics. These attacks exploit human error rather than technical flaws, often leading to unauthorized access and data leakage.

6. Poor Data Handling and Disposal Practices

Improper handling of sensitive data—such as leaving confidential documents unattended, using unencrypted USB drives, or failing to securely delete files—can result in accidental leaks. Similarly, disposing of old hardware or storage media without thorough data sanitization can expose data to recovery by unauthorized parties.

7. Lack of Employee Training and Awareness

Without adequate training on data security policies, employees may unknowingly engage in risky behaviors, such as sharing passwords, clicking on suspicious links, or mishandling confidential information. Building a strong culture of security awareness is critical to reducing accidental leaks.

8. Third-Party Vendor Risks

Outsourcing certain functions or working with vendors can introduce data leakage risks if those third parties have weak security practices. Data shared with partners must be protected through stringent contractual agreements, regular audits, and secure integration mechanisms.

9. Insider Threats and Malicious Employees

While challenging to predict, some data leaks arise from insiders with malicious intent—whether disgruntled employees, contractors, or others with authorized access who deliberately steal or leak information. Implementing monitoring, anomaly detection, and strict access controls can help detect and mitigate these threats.

By understanding these varied causes of data leakage, organizations can better tailor their security strategies to address vulnerabilities proactively and protect their sensitive data assets.

Tips to Prevent Data Leakage

You can prevent data leakage before it occurs by making smart decisions about the way the data flows through your organization.

1. Categorize Your Data

Data leakage, data breaches, cyberattacks, and so on usually target sensitive and confidential information. If sensitive data is distributed across different regions in the internal network, you cannot effectively track and manage it.

For this reason, understanding data, categorizing confidential data and placing it under restricted access can easily reduce opportunities for data loss.

2. Prevent End-Point Data Leaks

Monitoring the flow of data from an organization through emails, documents, and USB devices is crucial in identifying data leaks at their source points. Companies must have data security protocols in place that monitor the outflow of data.

Tip: This also applies to using data in your Software Development Life Cycle, don’t use customer PII, instead look to fabricate data or mask.

3. Avoid Weak Passwords

Since the threat is within the organization, the simplest way to prevent it is by making sure that each employee uses a strong password for their login credentials. Furthermore, a two-step verification process can also secure organizational data.

4. Perform Regular Audits

Performing regular audits can help an organization reflect upon changes that have occurred within the organization. Through audits, companies can monitor and track who has access to different applications and customer data.

Audit logs can help identify when (and by whom) an unauthorized access attempt has taken place. This can help you identify malicious employees who intend to compromise the organization’s integrity.

5. Educate and Train Employees

Human error is a leading cause of data leakage. Conducting ongoing security awareness training helps employees recognize phishing attempts, understand the importance of data protection, and adhere to organizational policies. Well-informed staff are better equipped to prevent accidental data leaks and report suspicious activities promptly.

6. Implement Network Segmentation and Access Controls

Dividing the network into segments based on sensitivity and function limits data exposure in the event of a breach. Coupling segmentation with strict access controls ensures that users and systems only interact with the data necessary for their roles, reducing lateral movement opportunities for attackers.

7. Use Encryption and Tokenization

Encrypting data at rest and in transit protects it from interception or theft. Tokenization further enhances security by substituting sensitive data with tokens, making stolen data useless without access to the token vault. These methods ensure that even if data is accessed improperly, it remains unreadable and unusable.

8. Monitor and Respond to Anomalies

Deploy real-time monitoring solutions that detect unusual access patterns or data transfers. Early detection enables swift incident response, minimizing the impact of data leakage. Establish clear protocols for investigation and remediation when suspicious activity is identified.

Taking these comprehensive prevention steps helps organizations create a robust defense against data leakage, protecting both sensitive information and organizational reputation.

How Data Leakage Affects Organizations at Different Hierarchical Levels

Data leakage at the upper levels of the hierarchy are especially detrimental. Most tech giants in the present era are highly data-driven. For instance, companies such as Amazon store highly specific and confidential data about their customers. This information can include sensitive data such as credit or debit card details, personal identification numbers, housing addresses, and so on.

If data leakage at such a company occurs, millions of people across the globe could be affected. Furthermore, the business will likely be dragged into court.

However, big tech giants usually have frameworks in place to detect any form of data leakage to the external environment. They invest millions of dollars in cybersecurity and have rigorous data security protocols. They respond quickly when they need to.

Start-ups are usually much easier to target. A common misconception among growing enterprises and start-ups is that data security is only a problem for the big tech companies. One of the reasons this is common belief is because cyberattacks against a tech giant create scandalous news headlines.

The truth is that start-ups must be as worried as even the largest enterprises. They must level up their data security standards and train their IT staff to perform regular audits.

Conclusion

While data leakage can result in huge losses, an organization can implement rigid data security policies to quickly identify the potential sources and prevent data leaks. Enhancing data security measures by using encryption techniques can add an additional data protection layer.

Furthermore, integrating simple policies such as restricting access to sensitive data files and implementing multi-factor authentication protocols can prevent malicious attacks.

With that being said, data leakage can occur when an employee releases information accidentally. Unfortunately, in such cases there isn’t much an organization can do to prevent it. However, educating your employees by conducting seminars can help spread awareness about data security threats.

Irrespective of whether your organization is a budding start-up or an experienced enterprise, it is necessary to create a secure culture where employees actively participate in cybersecurity discussions.

Learn More or Share Ideas

If you’d like to learn more about securing data & reducing risk, or perhaps just share your own ideas, then feel free to contact the enov8 team. Enov8 has some great data DevOps & DevSec tools that can help you on your journey.

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In the world of software development, collaboration across diverse teams and applications is essential. Picture an insurance company striving to integrate two-factor authentication into its suite of services.

This complex endeavor spans modifications in iOS and Android mobile apps, websites, APIs, databases, and more. To ensure a flawless user experience, rigorous integrated testing across all components is imperative. 

However, isolated teams, while well-versed in their domains, often lack a comprehensive understanding of the overall solution’s performance. In response, robust test environments that seamlessly integrate all essential components become indispensable.

Challenges with Test Environments

Test environments frequently become bottlenecks, fraught with challenges.

1. Is an environment available? Is it currently engaged?
2. Is it operational?
3. Do requisite components align with prescribed versions?
4. Is test data appropriately configured?
5. Are infrastructure, operating systems, and security profiles accurately aligned?

Each challenge demands attention, impacting project timelines and the software’s overall quality.

What Is Environment Drift? Understanding the Issue

Environment drift refers to discrepancies in component versions across distinct test environments. This drift can either be advantageous or detrimental.

• Beneficial: when planned and transparent, it tracks feature and defect fix progress through development pipelines.
• Detrimental: when managed poorly and unnoticed, it results in testing on improperly configured environments.

In the best case, testing requires reevaluation, consuming valuable time and affecting teams awaiting results. In the worst case, an unnoticed defect infiltrates production, causing customer dissatisfaction or business disruptions.

The Shortcomings of Manual Approaches

Organizations often resort to manual methods like spreadsheets, emails, or wiki pages to manage test environments. However, these approaches are cumbersome, error-prone, and no longer effective for today’s complex development landscapes.

Here’s a look at how Enov8’s environment manager does it better.

Solving the Issue: Enov8 Environment Manager for Enhanced Configuration Visibility

The solution lies in adopting a comprehensive test environment management solution, such as the acclaimed Enov8 Environment Manager. This tool captures, monitors, and manages configuration changes, addressing environment drift challenges head-on.

Key features of Enov8 Environment Manager include:

1. Configuration Modeling: Craft accurate models of configurations, reflecting dependencies among components.
2. Blueprinting: Create templates for environments to ensure consistency and minimize configuration discrepancies.
3. Deployment Tracking: Monitor deployment progress, promptly identifying configuration deviations.
4. Booking and Conflict Resolution: Efficiently manage environment bookings and resolve resource conflicts.
5. Dependency Mapping: Visualize component interdependencies, enabling proactive configuration management.
6. Analytics and Reporting: Leverage data-driven insights to optimize configuration management strategies.

By adopting Enov8 Environment Manager, organizations embrace an advanced approach to environment drift prevention.

Reaping the Benefits of Effective Configuration Management

Effective configuration management yields several benefits:

1. Speed: Swift software delivery by ensuring environments match required components and versions.
2. Efficiency: Reduced troubleshooting, minimized rework, and focused testing.
3. Quality: Elevated software quality through clear visibility into both test and production configurations.
4. Risk Reduction: Minimized risk of deploying faulty configurations into production, preventing defects and incidents.
5. Collaboration and Communication: Promoting seamless cross-team collaboration, streamlining workflows and issue resolution.
6. Cost Optimization: Streamlined workflows, minimized downtime, and optimized resource utilization.

Conclusion

In the journey of software delivery, effective environment management is a cornerstone.

By embracing Enov8 Environment Manager and similar solutions, organizations can foster efficient workflows, expedite deliveries, enhance efficiency, and elevate software quality.

Together, we can mitigate the impact of environment drift, ensuring that software reaches users with precision and excellence. Share your insights and experiences, and let’s collectively shape a future of efficient software development.

Post Author

Andrew Walker is a software architect with 10+ years of experience. Andrew is passionate about his craft, and he loves using his skills to design enterprise solutions for Enov8, in the areas of IT Environments, Release & Data Management.

The post What is Environment Drift? Understanding and Overcoming It appeared first on .

Most companies spend between 45%-55% of their IT budget on non-production activities like  Training, Development & Testing and lose 20-40% of productivity across their software testing and software development lifecycle. This is because the art of “Test Environment Management” (or TEM) is still an area of significant confusion.

What is Test Environment Management? A Quick Definition

In the hope of educating and raising the bar on Test Environment Management, here’s a quick overview of “IT & Test Environment Best Practices” from Enov8.

Test Environment Management is the act of understanding your production environment and cross-life-cycle test environments. It includes establishing controls to ensure your teams use them effectively and rapidly, service, provision, and delete them on time.

Why Is the Test Environment Management Process Important?

In the ever-evolving IT/Software field, requirements continually change, creating a complex interplay between cost, quality, and time. While high-quality products can be achieved with adequate budget and time, projects often exceed these constraints, resulting in compromised product quality.

One reason for poor quality products is the inadequate prioritization and inefficient management of test environment management. Regulatory compliance, such as Sarbanes Oxley, underscores the importance of ensuring software and services comply with industry norms and business requirements.

Therefore, effective test environment management processes are crucial to delivering high-quality products within budget and time constraints.

Test Environment Hot Spots

Test environment hot spots are critical areas within a test environment that require special attention to ensure the smooth functioning of the environment. These hotspots can be any part of the environment that can potentially cause issues, such as configuration problems, resource allocation, or dependencies.

One of the most common hotspots is the hardware and infrastructure of the environment. It is crucial to ensure that the hardware is capable of handling the testing load and that it is adequately configured. For example, insufficient memory or storage can lead to performance issues, while inadequate network capacity can cause delays or interruptions in testing.

Another hotspot is the test data, which should be carefully managed to ensure it is accurate and relevant. Testing with incomplete or incorrect data can lead to false positives and false negatives, which can result in significant costs and delays.

Integration points with other systems, such as third-party applications, databases, and APIs, are also potential hotspots. It is essential to ensure that these integration points are thoroughly tested and validated, and that any changes to the system do not affect the functionality of the test environment.

Finally, the configuration and deployment of the application being tested are critical hotspots. Changes to the application code, software patches, and upgrades can impact the test environment and cause issues.

Therefore, it is necessary to have a reliable and repeatable deployment process, and to test the application thoroughly before deploying it to the environment.

To manage these hotspots effectively, it is essential to conduct regular assessments of the environment, identify potential issues, and implement best practices to address them.

This approach ensures that the test environment is reliable, effective, and supports the testing process as a whole.

The Enov8 Test Environment Use Case

Key Test Environment Management Activities

Here is a list of the key TEM best practices you should consider implementing.

1. Knowledge Management / Modelling

Start with the process of modeling your Production Environment and Testing Environment. Including key configuration items like environment groups, systems, environment instances, components, microservices, relationships, and test data. It’s essential if we are to understand our platforms and end-to-end architecture truly.

Visualization and awareness contribute to better decision-making, servicing, and troubleshooting of our testing environment and help us better understand and support our production environment.

2. Demand Management

Development and software testing teams need access to specific test environments throughout the software development process. To avoid conflict and optimize the use of company resources, it is important to have a system in place that captures and manages demand for test environments.

This is where test environment booking management comes in.

Test environment booking management is a system that records the date, time, and duration of each team’s requested use of a test environment. You can use this information to schedule and allocate resources accordingly.

3. Streamline via Environment Automation

Invest in the orchestration (aka scripting) for key Test Environment tasks like Deployment Provisioning, Rollback, Decommissioning, and Test Bed Health checks.

Tip: If it takes more than an hour to prepare a test environment, there’s something wrong. Perhaps it is time to review your approach.

4. Testing Environments Planning & Coordination

The Test Environments Management process is responsible for managing and proactively scheduling test environment activities.

Use calendaring to coordinate operations across your test environments and ensure that you complete your testing environment preparation tasks in a timely and organized manner.

Tip: Attach the use of implementation plans (aka deployment plans) for more complex events. For example, create a ‘deployment implementation plan.’

5. Streamline via Standardised Operations

Use test environment run sheets and implementation plans to coordinate TEM operations and ensure test environment preparation tasks are completed in a timely and organized manner. Timely environments contribute to more software development and software testing time.

Tip: Employ this approach across all your Testing Environment tiers, i.e., Infrastructure, Applications, and Test Data. And across the lifecycle, i.e., the Software Development Environment, Test Environments like your Integration Testing Environment, Staging Environment, Performance Testing Environment, and of course, your Production Environments.

6. Optimize Through Insights

Drive continuous improvement through up-to-date insights on test environment behavior.

Use metrics, real-time data feeds, and dashboards to better understand your environment footprint, test environment usage, systems availability, and the various system teams’ service capability.

Watch Our TEM Video to Learn More

Conclusion

In conclusion, Test Environment Management (TEM) plays a crucial role in software development and testing. It is essential to manage and maintain the various testing environments to ensure the delivery of high-quality software. TEM enables effective collaboration between developers, testers, and other stakeholders and helps identify and mitigate potential risks early on in the development process.

By implementing a comprehensive TEM strategy, organizations can improve software quality, reduce downtime, and ultimately deliver better products to their customers.

With the growing complexity of software development and testing, TEM has become increasingly important, and it is essential for organizations to invest in effective TEM practices to stay ahead of the competition.

Author

Jane Temov is an IT Environments Evangelist at Enov8, specializing in IT and Test Environment Management, Test Data Management, Data Security, Disaster Recovery, Release Management, Service Resilience, Configuration Management, DevOps, and Infrastructure/Cloud Migration. Jane is passionate about helping organizations optimize their IT environments for maximum efficiency.

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