We exhibited at Mastering SAP Collaborate in Sydney last week, and one thing became clear: SAP teams are thinking about the security of data within non-production systems. A single line on our booth signage pulled people in all day long - “Data anonymisation".
Data anonymisation isn’t a new concept, but it finally feels like it’s moved into prime time.
As SAP teams migrate to SAP Cloud ERP, many are realising that this transition is the perfect moment to rethink how they’re securing non-production data.
Traditionally, SAP teams have poured most of their effort into production security — but the conversations in Sydney showed that they are now recognising that privacy risk doesn’t stop with production.
As Australia moves toward stronger privacy regulations and global delivery models become the norm, SAP teams across ANZ are recognising that unmasked production data in non-prod environments is a significant risk.
“As SAP teams move their infrastructure and systems to Cloud ERP, they are now seeing the opportunity to secure their non-production data as part of the transition.”
The reality is simple: almost every organisation still uses full production data sets for testing, interface validation, training, and project work.
That means real customer data, employee data, payroll data, tax IDs, financial information, vendor contracts, HR records, and more flow into environments that:
There are several reasons why SAP teams have been reluctant to pursue anonymisation.
Firstly, SAP data structures are complex, and setting up masking requires a deep understanding of tables, fields, and their interoperability.
Secondly, masked data has typically been limiting for test teams. Nulled, hashed, or scrambled data makes little sense to testers and makes it difficult for testers to validate their testing.
Modern anonymisation solutions — particularly tools like Libelle DataMasking — have moved far beyond simple scrambling. Today’s technology:
“Testers get data that behaves like production, without containing any real personal or financial details.”
Secondly, we saw many enquiries about the second line on our signage that attracted attention – “Automated System Copy”.
SAP teams who have already migrated from ECC to SAP RISE have realised that, although their contract states a certain number of system copies per year, the prep and post-copy processes remain their responsibility.
This is where automating system copy fits in.
“Automating system copies relieves the SAP team’s basis team from the painstaking task of providing (and checking) every detailed step to the SAP RISE basis person carrying out the task.”
An anonymised environment is only safe until the next refresh. Once copied, the real production data is back in, and you’re exposed again.
That’s where tools like - Libelle SystemCopy - come in. Automation ensures:
Finally, we saw enquiries around the push to reduce the size of S/4HANA non-prod systems.
HANA memory is expensive — and cloud hyperscaler billing based on system size means bloated non-prod landscapes cost more than most people realise.
Teams want to reduce:
Once again, many assumed RISE would “take care of this,” but SAP only scales what you bring. Your data footprint — and cost — is still your responsibility.
At Leg Up Software with Libelle AG we help SAP teams solve exactly the challenges that kept coming up in Sydney.
With Libelle DataMasking, you can anonymise sensitive production data during every system copy, ensuring QA, DEV, Training, and Sandbox environments stay safe by default. Test data still behaves like production — but without exposing real customer, employee, payroll, or financial information.
To keep those environments consistently secure, Libelle SystemCopy automates the entire refresh process, embedding anonymisation into every refresh and removing the need for manual processing or Basis “hero dependency.”
And for teams looking to reduce cloud and HANA costs, Libelle DataReducer automates data reduction in newly refreshed systems.
Together, these solutions give SAP teams a safer, leaner, more reliable non-production landscape — fully aligned with the shift to SAP Cloud ERP.