Broadcom TDM vs K2view: two ways to build test data

Last reviewed: October 2026. Broadcom statements checked against Broadcom TechDocs for Test Data Manager 5.0 and Broadcom's May 2026 solution brief.

The short answer. Broadcom Test Data Manager (Broadcom TDM) and K2view both mask, subset and generate test data. They differ in what a unit of test data is. Broadcom TDM works from a data model of tables and relationships. K2view delivers each business entity, such as a customer or an account, complete across every system it lives in. The difference shows up when one test spans several systems. Broadcom TDM keeps referential integrity across applications, but it cannot automate that across them. K2view masks and provisions the whole entity in one automated run, from the mainframe (through its partnership with Rocket Software) to the cloud and SaaS.

Naming: Broadcom TDM was formerly CA Test Data Manager, and its product line traces back to Grid-Tools. You will also see its modules named: the TDM Portal, Fast Data Masker and Datamaker.

If you run Broadcom TDM 4.x: Broadcom deprecated vTDM from release 4.11 and replaced it with DAVE in 5.0. Broadcom has ended support for older releases about a year after announcing it. Check your version's end-of-service date before you renew.

Whichever tool you pick, three things decide whether test data works. Does the same customer still match across every system after masking? Can a tester get exactly the data a test needs without waiting for a specialist? Can a pipeline request that data without a ticket?

Broadcom TDM vs K2view at a glance

The two platforms start from different units of test data. Broadcom TDM starts from a data model of tables and relationships, organized into projects and environments. K2view starts from the business entity. The first three rows are where that difference matters most.

Broadcom column: Broadcom TechDocs for Test Data Manager 5.0, Broadcom's Test Data Manager solution brief (6 May 2026), the Broadcom Software Academy blog (28 July 2025), and the Broadcom community site. Broadcom calls a data source Certified when it has been fully tested, and Supported when it is expected to work but has not been through a full testing cycle.

When Broadcom TDM is the better fit

• You want virtual clones of your databases through DAVE (Oracle, MongoDB, Db2, PostgreSQL, SQL Server, SAP HANA)
• You already run Broadcom's testing portfolio and want one vendor

When K2view is the better fit

• From test case to test data: you want data provisioned straight from test cases, by people or by AI agents
• One business process spans mainframe, distributed, SaaS and cloud systems, and tests fail when their data drifts apart
• You need cross-system masking and provisioning to run automatically, not application by application
• Testers need specific, targeted data rather than whole databases
• You need masked, synthetic and real data under one set of rules
• You want SaaS delivery, or one product and one masking approach instead of several modules

What Broadcom TDM 5.0 added

Broadcom is actively developing TDM. Release 5.0 added database virtualization (DAVE), which now covers Oracle, MongoDB, Db2 including z/OS, PostgreSQL, SQL Server and SAP HANA, Data Assistant templates, masking for CSV, JSON and Parquet files, a self-service catalog, and, from 5.0.1000.0, an optional AI Assistant. Everything is still built from projects, data models and tables. DAVE replaces vTDM, which Broadcom deprecated from release 4.11. The model behind Data Assistant Plus is heuristic-based.

What Broadcom TDM users say on Gartner Peer Insights

Reviewers praise Broadcom TDM's masking, synthetic data and test data reservation. The criticisms that recur are about effort and fit. Examples from Gartner Peer Insights, with dates:

• Learning curve: "Learning curve for the advanced features...can become overwhelming for new users" (January 2026)
• Cost: "enterprise pricing is high compared to other tools across the market" (January 2026)
• Reviews from 2021 to 2023 also cite deployment difficulty, setup time, and integration with Jira and Jenkins

Most of these reviews were written before release 5.0. The proof-of-concept plan below turns each one into a check you can run on any vendor, K2view included.

Where K2view replaced legacy and in-house test data tools

Results from K2view case studies (2023 for the bank and insurer).

A top-10 US bank

• After a wave of acquisitions, the bank used home-grown test data tools across departments. It ran a request for proposal, and K2view was one of two vendors asked to deliver a proof of concept.
• Scope: 25 data sources, including Db2, MongoDB, Oracle, Postgres and YugabyteDB, across 4 testing environments.
• Results: 40% increase in test data provisioning productivity, 50% increase in time-to-value of software releases, and 80% fewer staff provisioning test data (50 to 10 FTEs). Read the case study.

A Fortune 500 insurer

• The insurer replaced legacy and in-house tools used by a small platform team serving over 600 testers, with test data refreshed once a year.
• It started with three business entities (Consumers, Contracts, Advisors) and connected sources including Db2, IMS, Oracle and Salesforce.
• Results: 60% increase in early defect detection, 70% cost reduction for test data provisioning (not including hardware), and 100% increase in time-to-value of software releases. Read the case study.

AT&T

• AT&T, a K2view customer since 2015, cut the time to provision test data from weeks to minutes.
• Testers provision fresh data, masked in flight, as a self-service task, and provisioning is integrated with the CI/CD pipeline through APIs. Read the case study.

Six reasons teams choose K2view alongside or instead of Broadcom TDM

1. Test data stays consistent across every system, including SaaS and cloud

A real customer does not live in one database. The profile sits in CRM, invoices in billing, history on a mainframe. K2view stores each customer as one entity in its own Micro-Database, with data from every connected system, structured, semi-structured or unstructured, and replaces shared keys consistently across systems so referential integrity holds after masking. Complex joins and table stitching disappear from test data workflows.

K2view supports Snowflake, Workday, mainframe, Oracle, Salesforce, MongoDB and SQL Server data masking, as well as SAP test data management. Broadcom TDM has no SaaS application connectors. K2view was named a Visionary in the 2025 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Data Integration Tools.

A reviewer on Gartner Peer Insights describes using this approach to supply test data with referential integrity across a large number of applications, spanning mainframe, relational and NoSQL sources.

2. One product, one masking approach

K2view is a single integrated product: sensitive data discovery, masking, subsetting, synthetic data generation, reservation, versioning and CI/CD APIs, with less scripting and fewer handoffs. Masking is entity-aware and available as static, dynamic and in-flight. It is deterministic: the same source value produces the same masked value across systems, environments and runs, and policies are defined once in a central catalog. Broadcom TDM spreads these jobs across the TDM Portal, Fast Data Masker and Datamaker, and each has its own supported-source list. Before release 4.11.3000.0, for example, flat-file masking had to be configured in Fast Data Masker, not the Portal.

3. From test case to test data

As AI speeds up test creation, the data request becomes the slowest step. K2view Agentic TDM takes over that step. Its Test Case Data Agent reads test cases from your test management tool, works out what data each one needs, builds a provisioning plan, and runs the K2view tasks to deliver it. For each test case it can blend masked production data, cloned data, rules-based synthetic data and AI-based synthetic data. Masking and access rules apply automatically. Broadcom's AI Assistant lets users operate TDM through chat and MCP clients. K2view Agentic TDM starts from the test case itself.

4. The right data, not another full copy

Most tests need a few hundred well-chosen customers, not a copy of production. Testers use a self-service portal to select entities by business attributes, such as customers on a given plan with an overdue balance, and provision only those, to any environment, in minutes. They can save versions of a dataset and reload them, reserve entities so no one overwrites them mid-test, and roll back after a destructive run. Testers unblock themselves, which means fewer tickets and faster cycles.

5. The right generation method for each test

No single method fits every scenario. K2view supports several inside one TDM workflow:

• Rule-based generation for new features and precise edge cases
• AI-based (GenAI) generation from a model trained on a subset of your own entities, for distribution-faithful lookalikes at scale
• Entity cloning to multiply a masked entity into many unique copies for volume and performance tests
• Masked production data when realism matters most

Generation is entity-aware and works across systems. Synthetic sets are validated statistically, with reports for accuracy and compliance, and datasets can be aged. Teams can mix methods in the same environment for edge-case, negative, performance and regression testing, and all of them follow the same entity model and masking rules.

6. Built into your pipelines

Every K2view TDM task can run from the self-service portal, on a schedule, or through a REST API. A pipeline can start a task with its own parameters, track the execution, and extract or load a specific data version. Permissions are enforced per environment, so automation never bypasses access rules.

The bottom line. Broadcom TDM can manage test data. K2view removes test data as a bottleneck. If your roadmap includes CI/CD, cloud platforms or multi-system applications, an entity-based platform is the faster path. Calculate what that is worth with the K2view TDM ROI calculator.

If you are weighing a Broadcom TDM renewal or upgrade

These questions come from what buyers ask when a Broadcom agreement comes up. Put them to any vendor, including us.

1. Which version do we run, and when does Broadcom end support for it? Broadcom has announced end of service about a year ahead. For release 4.8 it announced in March 2022 and ended support on 31 March 2023, offering upgrades at no charge to customers with active maintenance.
2. What do we pay for TDM inside the Broadcom agreement? Ask for line-item pricing and a list of the modules your teams use.
3. Which masking path covers each of our sources? Ask for the Portal, Fast Data Masker and Datamaker matrix for your exact versions.
4. Do we use vTDM? If so, what is our path to DAVE, and does it cover our databases?
5. Can the tool mask the same customer consistently across all our systems in one automated run? Ask for a cross-system demo with custom fields and attachments.
6. What does the AI Assistant do against our data? Ask which tasks it performs, which model runs it, and where data goes.
7. How is synthetic data validated? Look for statistical comparison reports and cross-system, entity-level generation, not table-only scripts.
8. What breaks on upgrades? Ask for the release history and deprecation map for the past 18 months, including rollback experience.
9. How many tools will my testers touch? You want one portal plus optional APIs, not a stack of overlapping UIs.

How to compare Broadcom TDM and K2view in a proof of concept

1. Pick one real test scenario that spans at least two systems.
2. Define success: time to data, integrity across systems, and how much a tester can do without a specialist.
3. Time it. How long until the first masked dataset exists, and who had to build it? This tests the setup and learning-curve themes in the reviews above.
4. Run masking across both systems in one automated run. Check that the same customer carries the same masked values in each.
5. Provision the same dataset in a second environment. Check that masking and keys come out identical.
6. Review the masking behavior and privacy reports, and, if you need synthetic data, the validation reports.
7. Trigger one step from your pipeline (provision, refresh or roll back), including Jira or Jenkins if you use them. This tests the integration theme.
8. Assess operational simplicity: setup effort, number of components, and how easily teams adopt the tool.
9. Ask each vendor for the full price: licences, modules, implementation and support. This tests the cost theme.

Experience K2view Test Data Management first-hand in our interactive product tour, or request a demo.

FAQ

What is the main difference between Broadcom TDM and K2view?

Broadcom Test Data Manager builds test data from a data model of tables and relationships, with subsetting, masking, rule-based generation and, from release 5.0, database virtualization. K2view Test Data Management delivers business entities, such as a customer or an order, with their data from every system. Broadcom TDM suits mainframe and database-centric estates. K2view suits tests that span several systems.

Can Broadcom TDM automate masking across applications?

No. Broadcom TDM keeps referential integrity across applications, but it cannot automate that across them. Ask any vendor to show cross-application masking in one automated run, with the same customer masked to the same values in every system.

What do Broadcom TDM users say about it?

On Gartner Peer Insights, reviewers praise Broadcom TDM's masking, synthetic data and test data reservation. Recurring criticisms are the learning curve, setup effort, integration with other tools and cost. Most reviews date from 2023 or earlier, before release 5.0, and each is an individual opinion.

Which synthetic data methods does K2view support?

Rule-based generation, AI-based generation from a model trained on your data, entity cloning, and masked production data. Generation is entity-aware and works across systems, with statistical validation reports. Teams choose a method per test, within one workflow.

Is Broadcom Test Data Manager the same as CA Test Data Manager?

Yes. Broadcom TDM is the product formerly sold as CA Test Data Manager, and Broadcom's documentation still uses the CA name. Its product line traces back to Grid-Tools. Modules you may see named include the TDM Portal, Fast Data Masker and Datamaker.

Is Broadcom TDM available as SaaS?

No. Broadcom TDM is on-premises only. K2view Test Data Management offers a SaaS deployment option.

What replaced vTDM in Broadcom TDM?

Broadcom deprecated Virtual Test Data Management (vTDM) from release 4.11 and added the Database Virtualization Engine (DAVE) in release 5.0. DAVE supports Oracle, MongoDB, Db2 (including z/OS), PostgreSQL, SQL Server and SAP HANA.

Does Broadcom TDM have AI features?

Yes, as optional features. From release 5.0.1000.0, Broadcom TDM includes an AI Assistant: an in-portal chatbot and an MCP server that tools such as Cursor, Claude Code and ChatGPT can call. Its Data Assistant Plus model is heuristic-based.

Does Broadcom TDM support mainframe?

Yes. Broadcom TDM supports Db2, IMS and VSAM on z/OS with native masking engines. K2view supports the mainframe through its partnership with Rocket Software: Rocket gives real-time access to mainframe data, and K2view masks, subsets and provisions it, keeping integrity from mainframe to cloud.

Which data sources does Broadcom TDM support?

Broadcom TDM certifies many relational databases, including SQL Server 2012 to 2016 and Oracle 11g and 12c. It lists newer versions, Snowflake, BigQuery, MongoDB and Cassandra as Supported, meaning expected to work but not fully tested. It has no SaaS application connectors.

Is K2view an alternative to Broadcom TDM?

For some needs, yes. Teams look at K2view when tests span many systems, including SaaS and cloud sources, when they want one masking approach, or when they want test data provisioned from test cases. Teams with mostly mainframe workloads may keep Broadcom TDM. See also Informatica TDM vs K2view and IBM Optim vs K2view.

Who uses K2view for test data management?

Enterprises including AT&T use K2view Test Data Management. K2view case studies describe a top-10 US bank that cut the staff provisioning test data from 50 to 10 FTEs, and a Fortune 500 insurer that cut test data provisioning cost by 70%, excluding hardware. Both replaced in-house or legacy tools.

What should I ask before renewing Broadcom TDM?

Ask which version you run and when Broadcom ends support for it, what TDM costs inside your agreement, which masking path covers each source, whether you use vTDM and what the DAVE path is, and how referential integrity holds across systems after masking. Broadcom ended service for release 4.8 on 31 March 2023.

How does K2view keep referential integrity across systems?

Each entity's data from all systems is stored together and masked as one unit. Shared identifiers are replaced consistently across systems, so joins keep working after masking.

What is agentic test data management?

It is test data provisioning driven by an AI agent, from test case to test data. In K2view Agentic TDM, the Test Case Data Agent reads test cases, plans the data each one needs, and runs the provisioning tasks under your existing masking and access rules.

Related: Delphix vs K2view, IBM Optim vs K2view, DATPROF vs K2view, Informatica TDM vs K2view, and K2view Test Data Management.