diff --git a/data-prepper-api/src/main/java/org/opensearch/dataprepper/model/metric/JacksonMetric.java b/data-prepper-api/src/main/java/org/opensearch/dataprepper/model/metric/JacksonMetric.java
index d14f234e88..87aa699a32 100644
--- a/data-prepper-api/src/main/java/org/opensearch/dataprepper/model/metric/JacksonMetric.java
+++ b/data-prepper-api/src/main/java/org/opensearch/dataprepper/model/metric/JacksonMetric.java
@@ -132,20 +132,22 @@ public Integer getFlags() {
      */
     public abstract static class Builder<T extends JacksonEvent.Builder<T>> extends JacksonEvent.Builder<T> {
 
-        //protected final Map<String, Object> data;
-        //protected EventHandle eventHandle;
+        private final Map<String, Object> mdata;
 
         public Builder() {
-            data = new HashMap<String, Object>();
+            if (data == null) {
+                data = new HashMap<String, Object>();
+            }
+            mdata = (HashMap<String, Object>)data;
             eventHandle = null;
         }
 
 	public void put(String key, Object value) {
-            ((HashMap<String, Object>)data).put(key, value);
+            mdata.put(key, value);
 	}
 
         public void computeIfAbsent(String key, Function<? super String,? extends Object> f) {
-            ((HashMap<String, Object>)data).computeIfAbsent(key, f);
+            mdata.computeIfAbsent(key, f);
         }
 
         /**
diff --git a/data-prepper-core/src/test/java/org/opensearch/dataprepper/core/peerforwarder/codec/PeerForwarderCodecAppConfig_SerializationFilterIT.java b/data-prepper-core/src/test/java/org/opensearch/dataprepper/core/peerforwarder/codec/PeerForwarderCodecAppConfig_SerializationFilterIT.java
index 71a59ca32f..9ef9fe5f61 100644
--- a/data-prepper-core/src/test/java/org/opensearch/dataprepper/core/peerforwarder/codec/PeerForwarderCodecAppConfig_SerializationFilterIT.java
+++ b/data-prepper-core/src/test/java/org/opensearch/dataprepper/core/peerforwarder/codec/PeerForwarderCodecAppConfig_SerializationFilterIT.java
@@ -196,7 +196,6 @@ void filter_will_deserialize_known_classes_which_are_nested_inside_other_objects
     void filter_will_deserialize_known_Event_classes(final JacksonEvent.Builder jacksonEventBuilder) throws IOException, ClassNotFoundException {
         final Event event = jacksonEventBuilder
                 .withEventType(UUID.randomUUID().toString())
-                .withData(Collections.singletonMap(UUID.randomUUID().toString(), UUID.randomUUID().toString()))
                 .build();
         final PeerForwardingEvents peerForwardingEvents = new PeerForwardingEvents(Collections.singletonList(event), UUID.randomUUID().toString(), UUID.randomUUID().toString());
         final byte[] serializedBytes = createByteArrayWithObject(peerForwardingEvents);
@@ -267,7 +266,6 @@ void all_subclasses_of_Event_are_verified_in_this_test_suite_to_be_acceptable_fo
                 .filter(b -> b instanceof JacksonEvent.Builder)
                 .map(b -> (JacksonEvent.Builder) b)
                 .map(b -> b.withEventType(UUID.randomUUID().toString()))
-                .map(b -> b.withData(Collections.singletonMap(UUID.randomUUID().toString(), UUID.randomUUID().toString())))
                 .map(b -> b.build())
                 .map(e -> e.getClass())
                 .collect(Collectors.toSet());
@@ -596,4 +594,4 @@ public Stream<? extends Arguments> provideArguments(final ExtensionContext conte
             );
         }
     }
-}
\ No newline at end of file
+}