What is a Data Catalog?
A data catalog is a go-to knowledge base of data for users across an enterprise. In simple terms, data catalogs organize metadata for data users to discover, consume, and use. It collects details about data sources, types, relationships, and history—centralizing the metadata for all users to find the data they need.
However, many data catalogs face significant challenges. Often, they are too technical, making it difficult for different teams to collaborate. Non-technical users may find these systems hard to navigate and the vocabulary hard to understand. Additionally, many catalogs are not augmented and lack features like data profiling or AI-driven insights that can automate manual tasks or suggest next best data management actions.
The data catalog is also a core component of data governance. It acts as a dictionary of knowledge about an organization’s data and processes that are being governed, providing a link to data assets, their ownership, policies associated, and how they can be used to enable more data-driven decisions.
Developing an effective data catalog requires collaboration across departments to establish a common terminology and vocabulary. This ensures that when users search for data, identify its origins, and trace its journey through the data supply chain, they can do so easily and without the complexity of technical jargon. A well-structured data catalog makes this process seamless, promoting accessibility and understanding for both business and technical users to increase the value of your data assets, and promote collaboration across teams.
Key Components of a Business Catalog
- User-Friendly Interface: Simple and intuitive design for easy navigation by non-technical users.
- Search Functionality: Robust search capabilities with filters for quick data discovery.
- Business Glossary: Common terminology and definitions to ensure consistency across the organization.
- Business Data Lineage: Visual representation of data flow and transformations.
- Transparent Metadata: Clear and accessible metadata, including data definitions and synonyms, for non-technical users.
- Data Quality Indicators: Basic metrics to inform users about the reliability of the data.
- Key Business Attributes: Important business-related data attributes highlighted for easy reference.
- Usage Information: Details on how and where data can be utilized within the business context.
- Collaboration Features: Options for users to share insights, annotations, and usage statistics.
Key Components of a Technical Catalog
- Technical Data Lineage: Detailed tracking of data origins, transformations, and destinations.
- Comprehensive Metadata Management: Detailed metadata, including technical definitions, synonyms, and key attributes.
- Usage Guidelines: Information on technical applications and integrations of data.
- Data Profiling: Automated analysis to assess the content, quality, and structure of data.
- Advanced Search and Query: Sophisticated tools for querying data sets based on specific criteria.
- Access Controls and Security: Detailed permissions and security settings to protect sensitive data.
- APIs and Integration: Extensive support for APIs to facilitate integration with other systems and platforms.
Why is a Data Catalog Important?
Accurate and reliable data can optimize a business, so it’s crucial that key decision-makers can access, locate, understand and utilize that data. What does this mean? Users need to be able to find and understand data to effectively transform it, first, into information, then into meaningful business insights that can improve outcomes.
Typically, IT departments are the only line of business equipped to manage and prepare data for large-scale analysis. As a result, most business users don’t understand the technical vocabulary IT uses. On the other hand, IT may not fully understand the business perspective on data either.
A business-friendly data catalog presents a solution to both sides – and removes the dependency on the IT department from business users – by helping data users to identify and understand data sets that are available to them. The simplicity and accessibility of data catalogs encourage users to become more effective in their work, enabling better collaboration and efficiency across teams.
How Precisely Can Help
Precisely offers the Data Catalog as a foundational component of the powerful Data Integrity Suite that connects and powers all its parts – ensuring business and technical users can easily discover, access, understand, and responsibly act on enterprise data.
Learn more about how the Data Integrity Suite’s actionable and persona-driven Data Catalog builds trust in data so that you can future-proof your organization's data needs now and in the future.