The availability of data governance solutions such as data catalogs is expected to double data governance in size over the next five years. Industry analysts are having different thoughts on the importance of data catalogs and why one needs it. Data cataloging is in its infancy, and only a few businesses know the importance of data catalogs. Below are five reasons you need enterprise data catalogs.
Safe Access to Data
Companies often have a tough time retrieving critical data. Even after gathering the desired data, an enterprise might have a hard time organizing and controlling its access. The problem could be either very few highly trusted employees have access to data or everyone has access, which can be risky in regulated environments. However, one can use a catalog to tag information as sensitive and use security infrastructure such as Apache Ranger and Apache Sentry to provide control for a broader environment. That helps automate the validation process instead of waiting for someone to review documents before making them available to others. Automation speeds up the validation process and makes the data available for use almost immediately. Data cataloging is a relatively new technology. It enables enterprises to integrate with security infrastructure instead of imposing a new authorization system or user management across all the data sets. The ability to protect data access is critical and ensures sensitive data doesn’t leak. You also need to understand where the data came from so that you can trust it to execute a project.
Understand Data Acronyms
Data-related acronyms and laws create the need to understand the data that you have and its source. It’s easier to control access to information and manage its lifecycle when you know its origin. While all these laws come from different use cases and perspectives, they all narrow down to better data governance. All these laws tend to have an underlying focus on access and data lineage control. You need a data catalog to comply with these laws. You also need to know where the data is located and its provenance.
Save Time
Research has revealed that administrators spend almost 80% of their efforts on data integration activities. You could also be spending a lot of time gathering and profiling data sources. In short, managers spend a chunk of their time identifying which data is needed to execute a project. Unfortunately, many companies lack any mechanism to track and organize their data. In fact, most of them end up losing track of where their data is located. That results in a growing pile of data that often becomes difficult to manage. That means data analysts will spend a lot of time looking for the data they need to execute a project. With well-organized data catalogs, business analysts can spend that time doing other advanced analytics. You no longer need a lot of time to collect the components required to complete a task.
Reduce the Cost of Data Redundancy
Unfortunately, most companies hoard their data. In fact, some organizations hold more data than they need. However, data cataloging can help a company to eliminate the cost of data redundancy and save storage costs. You will also reduce the cost of managing excessive data and database license costs.
Allow Scalability
Developing a catalog on technologies such as Solr and Spark helps scale up all business processes. For instance, an enterprise can use a digitalized catalog to cover a billion rows of data. Digital data catalogs take advantage of cloud technology to scale up as data volumes increase. In fact, it takes about two hours to profile and complete tagging automation with a digital catalog. Moreover, data catalogs support both on-premises and hybrid data sources in the enterprise. In short, a catalog allows a business to organize its data in any format such as semi-structured, relational, and unstructured format.
