Why Metadata Management is an Essential Element of Data Governance

Lingering data usage problems

We constantly hear about the explosion of big data and how important data is to any business across any vertical. However, so many business users simply aren’t using their data because they don’t know what they have (do you have an up-to-the-minute inventory of your enterprise data?), they can’t find it (does any individual in your organization know where all of your important data resides?) or they just don’t trust it (we found it, but where did it come from and what does it mean?). If you can’t answer all of these questions definitively, then, surprise, you’re not alone!

In large organizations, data inevitably spans many systems and thus, IT has the challenging task of integrating data from various processes and systems. For example, many organizations maintain traditional and legacy systems and are expanding their data capabilities with cloud storage, ‘big-data’ Hadoop clusters, and third-party vendor data. Each of these data repositories has its own rules and requirements. The modern organization’s Data Supply Chain is massive, complex and scattered. All it takes is one change, such as a 3rd party feed switch, to impact an array of business processes. It’s no wonder organizations struggle to pinpoint the right data when they need it. Yet, these same organizations require real-time insights at the speed of business to make informed business decisions to achieve or sustain a competitive advantage.