Business

How a Data Catalog Can Help Your Business to Grow

A successful business requires proper planning, skill sets and proper tools along with right decisions to achieve their goals. Businesses relying on data management tools to make their decisions are more likely to achieve their revenue goals than the non-data-driven organizations. A data catalog is a place where you can store all your data sets. You can nicely compile and organize the data so that it can be readily used whenever required. A data catalog is helpful for business or data analysts, data stewards, data scientists, data engineers and other line of business data consumers. Today we have modern age data catalogs which are maintained using the latest machine learning technology. With the latest technology you can do the various difficult tasks involved in data cataloging very easily.

Why do I need to have a data catalog?

If a business uses data then there’s a need to understand it like what is it all about and what are the sources of their data. Businesses also have to share the relevant data securely in their organization. So for doing all this they require an updated data catalog each time. Any business needs to work with a lot of data which can be managed using a data catalog. Businesses need accurate data in order to make better decisions.

Let’s take a look at the reasons which makes data catalog so important for your business.

  • Centralized repository of all the organization’s data

Data catalog is an inventory of all the data sets of an organization at one place. The users of data catalog can also access the metadata alongside the data.

  • Gives access to trusted data

The value of data is only when you can trust it. A trusted data is one which is accurate and complete to the extent that it is certified and you can entirely rely on it for its accuracy and efficiency. We have already stated that the business’s decisions largely depend on the data.

  • One can easily view and understand the data lineagee. its source, users and the transformations that have been applied.
  • Access to accurate and consistent data

Data catalog is automatically updated ensuring data consistency. You can edit the data as and when required.

  • Data efficiency is increased

Data discovery becomes faster because now you know where to look for the data you are searching for. This gives more time for data analysis.

  • Data effectiveness is increased

When data is compiled at one place the data transparency is improved thus eliminating all the possible ambiguities. This makes the data more effective. Data governance, assigning data stewards, data quality management and other data management processes also becomes easier.

  • Eliminates the risk of data redundancies

Efficiency of the data is increased when the risk of data redundancy is decreased. When you work with different data sources there are chances of data redundancies. So with a central data source i.e. a data catalog this problem is eliminated. At the same time the data storage, management and data quality costs are reduced.

  • Data compliance, data security and audibility is improved

It is very important to control who accesses your data because there is a lot of private information involved. With data catalogs you can control as to who can access the data and who can’t. You can categorize and protect your data at the same time. The data protection laws have been formulated with 107 countries have put forth the legislation to secure the data and ensure data privacy. Data catalog simplifies data security and compliance (GDPR, CCPA, etc.).

Conclusion

Data catalogs are not only helpful data maintenance but they have embedded data governance and data privacy capabilities. It is a centralized, trusted and secured resource of all data sets at one place which makes it very easy to use. It also provides a graphical representation of the data sets thus simplifying the data governance and data compliance. The leading tools for creating and maintaining a data catalog are:

  • Aginity
  • Alation Data Catalog
  • Alex Solutions Data Catalog
  • Cloudera Navigator
  • Collibra Data Catalog
  • Google Cloud Data Catalog
  • IBM Watson Knowledge Catalog
  • Informatica Data Catalog
  • Ovaledge Data Catalog
  • Talend Data Catalog
  • Waterline Data Catalog

Piyushi

Blogger By Passion, Programmer By Love and Marketing Beast By Birth.

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