Recommendations
For data and analytics leaders evaluating data catalogs as part of a data management strategy:
Use data catalogs to curate the inventory of available distributed information assets and to map information supply chains, by making them an essential component of your data management strategy.
Proceed in the knowledge that tool-specific embedded data catalogs (such as those delivered as part of a Hadoop distribution, a cloud-based data lake or a data preparation tool) will improve data usability, trust and shareability only in the context of that particular tool.
Deploy data catalogs with the capability to scale beyond narrow (or tactical) use-case requirements, in order to support strategic data and analytics needs, by ensuring they are connected to the broader enterprise metadata management and information governance programs.
Data Catalog Is Necessary?
According to Forrester research, only 14% of business stakeholders make thorough use of customer insights. That’s because most companies don’t have access to their data.
“A data catalog solves multiple problems. It gives a comprehensive view of each piece of data across databases. Plus, it makes the data easy to find. It also can put guardrails on the data and govern who can access it. “