The Challenge
Reducing Risk and Resource Load for PCI Compliance
As PCI DSS 4.0 expanded in scope and complexity, the organization faced mounting pressure to modernize its approach without compromising security, scalability, or performance.
Expanded scope: New standards introduced broader coverage across mobile payments, e-commerce, and serverless computing — bringing more systems into audit scope.
Manual controls & cost: Maintaining compliance required extensive compensating controls, straining internal resources and increasing operational overhead.
Data silos: Security requirements restricted data access and limited the ability to activate sensitive information for fraud detection, analytics, and AI.
The Solution
Simplifying Compliance with a Data-Centric Protection Strategy
Protegrity worked with the travel company to develop and implement a secure, scalable architecture built around tokenization and data-centric protection. Key components included:
- Two-tiered data environments: A clear separation between the Cardholder Data Environment (CDE) and non-CDE systems allowed most data to be securely de-identified and used outside of PCI audit scope.
- Vaultless tokenization: Protegrity’s approach eliminated the need for a centralized token vault, simplifying operations and improving availability.
- Fine-grained access control: Role-based policies ensured that only authorized users could access sensitive data, either in clear text or partially masked form.
- Enterprise-wide coverage: Tokenization and data protection were applied consistently across on-prem, cloud, and hybrid systems.
The Outcome
Tangible Impact: Lower Costs, Better Security, More Business Value
The new approach delivered measurable business and technical benefits — improving compliance efficiency while unlocking greater value from sensitive data.
Business Value
- Reduced PCI scope: By protecting sensitive data at the source, the company removed entire systems and processes from compliance scope — cutting audit time and complexity. >
- Lower operational costs: Decommissioning legacy infrastructure and eliminating manual controls freed up budget and personnel.
- Increased data utility: De-identified data could now be safely shared and activated across business functions, enabling more robust analytics and smarter decision-making.
Technical Value
- Streamlined architecture: A unified data protection strategy simplified system management and improved resilience.
- High availability: Vaultless tokenization ensured scalability and performance across millions of transactions—even during peak travel periods.
- Analytics-ready data: De-risked data supported the company’s ongoing investments in AI, machine learning, and automation.
The Protegrity Advantage: Fit-For-Purpose Data Protection
Before Protegrity Implementation
- Manual compensating controls and audit prep consumed significant time and budget.
- Compliance requirements constrained data access and slowed innovation.
- Siloed systems and legacy architecture created unnecessary friction and risk.
With Protegrity
- Siloed systems and legacy architecture created unnecessary friction and risk.
With Protegrity
- Tokenization dramatically reduces the volume of data in PCI audit scope.
- Costs and resource strain significantly reduced.
- De-identified data safely activated across business units — powering fraud detection, analytics, and AI.
Technology Implementation
The Protegrity Advantage: Driving Cloud Innovation
Before Protegrity Implementation
- Legacy DSG infrastructure lacked the flexibility and scalability for cloud operations.
- Operational delays and increased expenses hindered cloud migration progress.
- Analytics initiatives faced roadblocks due to performance and security concerns.
With Protegrity
- Elastic scaling with AWS Lambda functions enabled the technical teams to seamlessly respond to unexpected data flows.
- Snowflake integration extended secure data policies to the cloud, ensuring compliance and usability. on
- Retired costly on-prem systems while driving advanced analytics and cloud-based applications, creating millions of dollars in value.
“Protegrity’s end-to-end data protection solutions enable us to secure sensitive information while enhancing transaction speed and volume. Helping us reduce our compliance costs and scope has made PCI-DSS one less worry on our plate.”
Data protection Lead, Multinational Travel Management Company