Do I need a data catalog?

Consider if: multiple data sources, many data users, difficulty finding data, governance requirements. Small, simple environments may not need dedicated catalogs - complexity justifies investment.

How do I populate a data catalog?

Automated: crawl databases for technical metadata. Manual: add business descriptions, ownership. Crowdsourced: enable users to contribute. Combination gives best results.

What is the difference between a data catalog and data warehouse?

Data warehouse stores actual data for analytics. Data catalog stores metadata about data. Catalog is like a library index; warehouse is like the books themselves.

How do I drive catalog adoption?

Make it valuable: accurate, comprehensive, integrated with workflows. Make it easy: good search, intuitive UI. Make it social: ratings, comments, champions. Start with high-value datasets.

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Data Catalog

A centralised inventory of data assets with metadata, enabling discovery, understanding, and governance of organisational data.

In-Depth Explanation

A data catalog is an organised inventory of data assets within an organisation. 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 Australian 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."