The Enterprise Data Catalog

Chapter 6. Access Data: The Keys to Successful Implementation

This is not a chapter on the actual implementation of data catalogs, but a chapter on the most important decisions you must take before you implement a data catalog.

I’ll show you what to consider when choosing a data catalog, in what ways you can create access to the data you find in the data catalog, and finally, the questions domain owners and asset stewards must ask themselves to describe their domain and its assets.

First, let’s look at the selection criteria for a data catalog.

Choosing a Data Catalog

Most data catalogs specialize in one or more of the different capabilities I list in the following, such as data lineage or sharing agreements, how it is possible to organize data, or how they adapt to a specific tech stack. No data catalog out there does everything perfectly (such as the fictitious data catalog used by the equally fictitious Hugin & Munin company), though there are many that do certain things very well. Furthermore, you may prefer how one data catalog does something over another. The key is to know what you need from a data catalog.

Vendor Analysis

The first step to figuring out which data catalog is right for your organization is to determine what you need from a data catalog. You might want a data catalog that specializes in one or more capabilities, and so the following overview is created to help you perform your vendor analysis.

Tip

Take a look at Chapter 8. In that chapter, you will find ...