You may have heard about Workday tenants, or maybe not. In either case, if you’re looking for more information regarding what a Workday sandbox tenant is, this article is for you!
Read on to learn more about Workday sandbox and where our senior-level Workday consultants can fit in your organization.
What is a Workday Tenant?
A Workday tenant refers to any Workday application that needs a secure cloud-based environment to operate properly and carry out its full potential.
Workday Tenant Capabilities
Workday delivers multi-tenant capabilities, which integrate each user’s tenant into the same operating system while isolating each user’s core data within their tenant.
Through a single application server and multi-tenancy features, users can efficiently manage their user experience and utilize all of the features of their Workday software.
By consolidating necessary IT resources with isolated (but, still integrated) Workday tenant access, businesses can save money without sacrificing the security of each user’s tenancy.
Types of Workday Tenants
- Global Modern Services Tenant (GMS)
- Alma Mater University Tenant (AMU)
- Green Oak Valley University Tenant (GOV)
- Gold Tenant
What is a Workday Sandbox?
A sandbox environment, commonly used in the cybersecurity sector, is an isolated virtual machine where potentially dangerous software code can run without interfering with local programs or network resources.
Researchers studying cybersecurity utilize sandboxes to execute dubious malware from unidentified attachments and URLs and monitor its behavior over time.
Security teams can securely “detonate” the code to ascertain its functionality and assess whether it is harmful before it goes into the production environment, as the sandbox is an emulated environment that lacks access to the network, data, or other programs.
Sandbox vs. Sandbox Preview Tenant
With similar names, it’s easy to get sandbox and sandbox preview tenants confused. Here are some key differences to keep in mind:
1) Sandbox Tenant
Sandbox tenants are one of three types of production tenants.
The main goal is to test and prep modifications before actually implementing them in production tenants. It can report many difficulties encountered by clients and provide support to ensure the feature will function properly in the production environment. These tenants cannot be used as implementation or learning tenants in the Workday environment.
In any Workday environment, a sandbox tenant helps administrators and consultants create and test new features, modifications, and configurations before integrating them into the primary production tenant.
Typically, the data in the sandbox tenant is a replica of the real production tenant’s data. Users may test new features for their Workday tenants while simultaneously maintaining integrity for the current production data and ensuring their primary tenants continue to operate smoothly in the process.
2) Sandbox Preview Tenant
A sandbox preview tenant is a replica of a production tenant, but it also offers more features that will be included in future Workday versions.
To make sure that all users are on the same page and that their Workday software is running as efficiently as possible, a sandbox preview tenant’s goal is to assist Workday users in understanding both their current Workday system and the new capabilities that will be available in newer versions.
This kind of tenant will also fit into your schedule for going live, and it will continue to work beyond your first implementation phase. This way, it can serve as a test environment for your team to keep them up-to-date on new Workday releases and application upgrades over time.
Why is Workday Sandbox Important?
- You can test new software applications and system updates in a sandbox environment without disrupting the live environment.
- Before they can harm the live environment, sandbox environments help users identify and isolate potential security risks and vulnerabilities.
- You can experiment with various configurations and parameters to observe how they impact the system without affecting the applications in production .
- You can troubleshoot and fix problems by reproducing flaws or difficulties that users have reported in a controlled setting.
- You can collaborate with other teams or stakeholders to build new features or functionality without affecting the live environment.
Benefits of Workday’s Sandbox
The Workday sandbox operates similarly to a testing environment and can be used to run any program on a secure platform before releasing it to production or granting it access to production resources. Programs that could potentially cause problems, whether as a result of malware or accidental software vulnerabilities, can be executed without slowing down or harming business-critical resources.
It’s a common practice to quarantine unknown emails and attachments using a sandbox. Email filters in the sandbox can identify potentially harmful email messages and attachments, and a system administrator will access them in a secure location to spot false positives.
Malicious documents may contain macros that take advantage of security holes in widely used software, like Microsoft Office. An administrator can open attachments and evaluate macros in a sandbox virtual computer to assess their security.
Employees in an organization that lacks expert cybersecurity personnel can utilize a sandbox to isolate questionable programs. Workers can run untested code in a sandbox without endangering their computers.
How Are Workday Sandboxes Updated?
Workday automatically updates sandbox environments so new features can be tested before production is actually updated. Here’s how it works:
- Production gets cloned
- Update to the newest version of Workday
- Create a Workday update sandbox for the testing environment
- Production gets updated to the newest version
- Sandbox gets deleted
These updates occur three times a year.
How Can We Help?
Whether you need help understanding the different Workday Tenants or just an extra hand implementing Workday for the first time, Surety Systems can help!
Our senior-level Workday consultants have the functional skills and experience you need to successfully implement your Workday projects, no matter the length, scale, or complexity of the project.
Contact Us
Interested in learning more about Workday sandbox? If so, contact us today!
