When we talk about modern data management, data catalog is the first thing that comes to mind. Organizations that have accomplished data catalog implementation successfully reap the benefits of speed, performance, and quality of data analysis.
Not only it is beneficial for companies, but also boosts the confidence of data analysts handling large volumes of data on a daily basis. Those who are new to the technology often ask what is data catalog, why we need it, and similar questions.
So, let’s understand the data catalog in detail to understand its benefits and importance for the organization dealing with data silos.
What is Data Catalog?
Data Catalog, in general, is a collection of metadata, combining data management and search tools. It enables data analysts, data scientists, and other users to search for the data they need for retrieving useful information.
The underlying metadata gives insight into contextual information about available data assets. A data profiling tool can help data users understand what data components are available in different IT systems and determine whether it matches their needs.
Since data analytics has become a key practice for organizations in all different industries across the world, catalogs have become more important than ever.
How Does Data Catalog Work?
A data catalog gathers metadata from different data sources, data lakes, and data warehouses that support analytics, business intelligence, and data science applications. Different data catalog software and functions are available to enrich and organize metadata to make it meaningful for end-users.
The data inventory is searchable, and users can search for required information using technical terms, business terms, keywords, and tags. The search can also be implemented using natural language queries. To help users understand data, the catalog features data curation capabilities and data lineage details that help organize data sets.
Benefits of Data Catalog for Organizations
A data catalog allows data users to scan data assets across the enterprise. It makes data analysts efficient by helping them easily find the most relevant data that fits their business needs. Without a data catalog, the data analysts will spend a lot of time finding and understanding data which can cost the organization and analysts time and effort.
The benefits of a data catalog are many, few of them are listed below.
- Effective data context
- Improved data efficiency
- Reduced risks and errors
- Accurate data analysis
To make work even simpler, data users can use data catalog tools to automate the process of developing and managing data catalogs seamlessly.
