Data Catalog
A centralized inventory of data assets with metadata, enabling discovery, understanding, and governance of organizational data.
In-Depth Explanation
A data catalog is an organized inventory of data assets within an organization. It serves as a searchable repository where users can find, understand, and access data assets.
Data catalog features:
- Search and discovery: Find relevant data
- Metadata management: Technical and business metadata
- Data lineage: Track data origins and flows
- Data quality: Quality metrics and scores
- Access management: Request and grant access
- Collaboration: Comments, ratings, bookmarks
Catalog contents:
- Databases and tables
- Files and datasets
- Reports and dashboards
- APIs and services
- ML models and features
Benefits:
- Reduce time finding data
- Improve data understanding
- Enable self-service analytics
- Support governance and compliance
- Break down data silos
Popular tools:
- Alation, Collibra (enterprise)
- Atlan, Select Star (modern)
- AWS Glue Data Catalog
- Azure Purview
- Open source: DataHub, Amundsen
Business Context
Data catalogs make data findable. Without them, people spend hours searching for data or recreate what already exists.
How Clever Ops Uses This
We implement data catalogs for US businesses, enabling teams to discover and use data assets for AI and analytics projects.
Example Use Case
"An analyst searches the data catalog for "customer churn," finds relevant tables, reads descriptions, checks quality scores, and requests access - all self-service."