1. A method comprising: receiving, by a processor from an instantiated virtual machine in a cloud-based network, a request to access secure data; translating, by the processor, the request in order to locate the secure data in a secure data store located at a data facility, wherein the request indirectly references the secure data in the secure data store; retrieving, by the processor, the secure data from the secure data store with the translated request; applying, by the processor, a protective mechanism to the secure data to generate protected secure data, wherein applying the protective mechanism comprises masking the secure data to generate masked data; transmitting the protected secure data from the secure data store to the instantiated virtual machine in the cloud-based network; decoding the protected secure data in the instantiated virtual machine to generate decoded secure data; operating on decoded secure data in the instantiated virtual machine to generate updated secure data; and transmitting the updated secure data from the instantiated virtual machine to the secure data store.