Perforce's Latest Survey Finds Confidence vs. Reality Gap with Data Protection

98% of survey respondents are confident in their ability to protect sensitive data, but 34% have experienced breaches or theft.

MINNEAPOLIS, July 21, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Perforce Software, the modern DevOps Tech Stack that ensures AI governance, today announced the release of its third annual State of Data Compliance and Security Report. Based on a global survey of more than 500 enterprise leaders conducted in partnership with Hanover Research, the report reveals a disconnect between how confident organizations feel about protecting sensitive data and the risks they are exposed to, like data breaches and audit failures. The findings reflect the perspectives of leaders at large enterprises, primarily ones generating more than $1 billion in annual revenue and employing 25,000 or more people.

A Worrisome Gap Between Policy, Confidence, and Execution

The report reveals that while data masking policies are widely adopted, they are not consistently enforced. 99% of organizations have data masking mandates in place, yet 84% still allow compliance exceptions.

Further, 98% of survey respondents report confidence in their ability to protect sensitive data. However, organizations continue to face persistent risks, barriers, and compliance gaps:

• 77% are concerned about data breaches or theft in non-production environments.
• 74% are concerned about audit failures.
• Most alarmingly, 43% have already experienced audit failures, and 34% experienced breaches or theft.

"We're seeing a contradiction in the data: strong confidence despite concerns and real-world risks," said Ross Millenacker, Senior Product Manager for Perforce Delphix* and one of the report's authors. "That tension highlights how challenging it is to protect sensitive data at scale without the right solutions, particularly as organizations expand into agentic development."

Trends Around AI Investment, Confidence, and Challenges

• The same confidence vs. reality gap is playing out in AI. 86% of organizations have AI data privacy mandates and 98% express confidence in protecting sensitive data in AI workflows, yet 68% are concerned about data leaks and 62% about training data breaches in these environments.

• Organizations are increasing investments in AI data protection, with 80% planning to invest in solutions that protect sensitive data used for AI/ML model training and fine-tuning in 2026-2027.
• Data quality is the #1 barrier to protecting sensitive data. 51% of leaders cite data quality as the biggest challenge in protecting data in AI, ML, and analytics workflows. 
• The AI boom is driving a new data protection priority: Databricks and Snowflake. Enterprises now rank leading analytics platforms Databricks and Snowflake among the top sources requiring masking, reflecting the rising stakes of securing the data that powers AI innovation.

Exploring the Future of Enterprise Data in the Age of AI

The 2026 State of Data Compliance and Security Report is part of a broader research initiative from Perforce Delphix examining how enterprises are managing and protecting data in the era of AI and agentic development. Delphix recently released its Test Data Management Report for AI-Ready Enterprises, which explores trends, priorities, and challenges surrounding modern test data management. Additional reports focused on AI and data privacy, as well as synthetic data, are scheduled for release later this year.

*Perforce Delphix is a data automation platform that helps enterprises deliver compliant, high-quality data for software development, testing, analytics, and AI initiatives. The platform combines data delivery, masking, synthetic data generation, and centralized governance to help organizations accelerate software innovation while reducing data risk.

Resources

• Access the report: Third Annual State of Data Compliance and Security Report: 2026 Edition
• Learn more about Delphix solutions for enterprise data privacy compliance and AI
• Explore findings from the test data management report: 2026 Test Data Management Report for AI-Ready Enterprises
• Follow Perforce on LinkedIn

About Perforce 

Perforce delivers a DevOps Tech Stack for teams building and running high-stakes software systems and revenue-critical applications, where failure is not an option. As a trusted partner helping organizations govern software delivery for AI, Perforce solutions enforce guardrails across code, quality, infrastructure, and data—enabling innovation without introducing risk. With customers in over 80 countries—including more than 75% of the Fortune 100 and 50% of the Global 500—Perforce is trusted by the world's most innovative teams to build, test, secure, and deliver critical software at scale.

Media Contacts 

PERFORCE GLOBAL 
Maxine Ambrose 
Ambrose Communications 
Ph: +44 118 324 1040
[email protected] 

SOURCE Perforce Software