A data catalog is a central repository that describes the metadata and relationships of your distributed datasets. It democratizes discovery by enabling users to find, understand and use data with confidence – regardless of the platform or data source. It provides context to data stewards, data/business analysts, developers and others who need to understand what theyre working with and how its related to other sources.
When it comes to selecting a data catalog tool, the most important features are those that support the needs of a modern data culture. For example, collaborative features can help build a common vocabulary among different teams so knowledge isnt siloed.
Additionally, the ability to search across all data sets (and a variety of platforms) in familiar business terms with search and find functionality makes for a powerful metadata management solution. Other key features include business glossary functionality that eliminates the need for Excel-based spreadsheets to describe tables and columns, column-level automated data lineage (showing the origins of a specific piece of data) and more.
With these features in place, a data catalog can serve as the “Google†for company information and metadata. It can provide visibility into the technical interdependencies of a given data set through its lifecycle by tracking how each change affects other data sets, for example. The solution can also detect similarities and suggest connections between similar data points. And it can automate the cataloging and organization of metadata with connectors that allow it to discover a variety of systems including databases, cloud data lakes, file systems and more.
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