In today’s world of data, you often spend more time looking for data than analyzing it. That’s why enterprise-wide data catalogs that make data asset discovery straightforward now are a must. They broadly enable organizations to discover, register, enrich, understand, and utilize sprawling data sources.
Data catalogs bring to light the undiscovered data within the organization, so that you spend more time analyzing and less time looking for data.
Data catalogs enable users to:
- Discover data assets to unlock their potential
- Capture tribal knowledge to make data more understandable
- Bridge the gap between IT and the business
- Keep data where it lives and connect with the tools they choose
- Spend less time looking for data, and more time getting value from it
With a well-designed data catalog, users easily locate the data they need with an intuitive user experience and utilize it in the tools they use every day.
Data catalogs encourage broad adoption and value creation across the organization. For example, they help to get tips, tricks, and unwritten rules into an experience that provides value for everyone. Thus, they allow users to contribute by providing informed insights that enhance the catalog.
Data Catalogs are the New Black
To easily locate and understand numerous data sources, enterprises need an organized data catalog, regardless of industry or project. Hence, data catalogs enjoy increasing popularity because the concept works. Gartner calls them “the new black in data management and analytics.”
As metadata management software, a data catalog helps organizations understand what data they have and where it’s located. It reveals the data and metadata available by topic so the specific sources can be found quickly to aid analysis and decision-making.
Moreover, data catalogs automate the processes involved in activating, harvesting, integrating, and governing enterprise data aligned with business requirements. The result is greater accuracy and faster time to value for digital transformation and data governance initiatives.
Demand for Data Catalogs Soaring
To build a data-driven culture, businesses need an enterprise data catalog. Specifically, a data catalog helps everyone in the organization answer business questions with insight, accuracy, and speed. Thus, Gartner says that demand for data catalogs is soaring as organizations struggle to inventory distributed data assets to facilitate data monetization and conform to increasing regulations.
From managing data sprawl to enhancing productivity across the business, data catalogs are now an enterprise must-have.
“By 2021, organizations that offer a curated catalog of internal and external data to diverse users will realize twice the business value from their data and analytics investments than those that do not.” Gartner, 2019
Data Catalogs Enable Remote Work
According to Gartner, how data is organized, made available, integrated, shared, and governed is critical to enterprises under normal circumstances. But, when forced to work remotely, these capabilities have a massive impact on the ability of teams to continue operations.
“Given the shift in how organizations are working, consistent and reliable flow of data across people, teams and business functions is crucial to survival.” Gartner, 2020
Indeed, analysts say the shift from centralized to distributed working requires organizations to make data and data management capabilities available more rapidly and in more places than ever before.
What is a Data Catalog?
“A data catalog maintains an inventory of data assets through the discovery, description, and organization of datasets. The catalog provides context to enable data analysts, data scientists, data stewards, and other data consumers to find and understand a relevant dataset for the purpose of extracting business value.” Gartner
An effective data catalog must empower the workforce to harvest more information from data investments and develop better insights that quickly enable smart decisions. Most importantly, it aligns to the organization’s data strategy and priorities.
Consider these three classes of data catalogs:
- Data catalogs for data science and data engineering use cases that cater to the data elites.
- Vendor or tool-specific data catalogs with limited capabilities (as opposed to a single data catalog connected to all data sources that provides a single source of truth).
- Enterprise data catalogs for analysis, teamwork, and broad use in information governance and to manage, measure, and monetize information.
An enterprise data catalog provides the foundation of data empowerment. It brings together data, analysis, and people to enable a data-driven culture. Furthermore, it offers advanced capabilities and is accessible and easy to use across the organization.
Data Catalog and Information Governance Experts
Navigating the world of unstructured data, information governance and data compliance requires an experienced guide. Partner with the data experts at Messaging Architects to get the most from your data.
