Managing and securing database information across different environments is not just crucial—it's a requirement.
Recognizing this need, we have developed Washery, a robust tool designed to streamline the management and manipulation of datasets stored in Amazon RDS (Relational Database Services). As a managed database service offered by AWS, Amazon RDS handles a significant amount of sensitive data, which often requires meticulous handling, especially when transferring between different environments like production and non-production.
Why Washery?
Washery is not just a tool; it's a solution designed to address the challenges of managing sensitive data in non-production environments. By automating the cleaning and dumping processes, it significantly reduces manual efforts and potential errors, ensuring that developers and testers work with data that mirrors production quality without risking privacy or security. Once the data is cleaned, Washery facilitates its transfer by either creating a new, clean snapshot or dumping the anonymized data into an Amazon S3 bucket for storage.
How Washery works:
- Snapshot and Database Details Retrieval: Initially, Washery retrieves details about the existing snapshots, database types, and versions from RDS.
- Scrub/Dump/Restore Stack Creation: It uses AWS CloudFormation to deploy the necessary stack for data scrubbing, dumping, or restoring operations.
- Execution in Secure Environment: Washery operates in a secure runtime environment on AWS Fargate, where the main scrubbing or dumping scripts are executed.
- Data Scrubbing and Dumping: Depending on the operation:
- Scrubbing: A custom scrubbing script is applied to the restored database snapshot, ensuring all sensitive data is anonymized.
- Dumping: The cleaned data is then dumped into an S3 bucket, effectively backing it up in a secure and compliant manner.
- Optional Snapshot Creation: Post-processing, an optional snapshot of the cleaned data can be created for further use.
- Environment Teardown: Finally, the environment is cleanly torn down via CloudFormation, ensuring no residual data or resources are left.
Advantages of Using Washery:
- Security and Compliance: Washery operates securely within your AWS account, using isolated resources and generating random passwords to safeguard access.
- Efficiency: Automating the data cleaning and dumping process reduces manual labor and potential human error, speeding up the data management processes for non-production environments.
- Flexibility: With the capability to handle various types of database setups within RDS, Washery is adaptable to a wide range of data management needs.
By integrating Washery into your data management strategy, you can ensure that your non-production environments are using data that is clean, compliant, and reflective of your production setups, without compromising data security or privacy.
Washery is available to all base2Services' customers as part of our ongoing services. Contact us to find out more
