What Is A Data Catalog And Why Do People Use Them?

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What is a data catalog?
iData was Facebook’s data discoverability tool. It provided a lot of functionality that I have started to miss. This included the baseline functions you would expect including the ability to find tables, trace lineage, and track down owners of said tables.
But there were also other beneficial features like cost tracking, data quality assessments, and table certification. All of these features made it easy for a new data engineer to quickly orient themselves as they started on new projects.
My Favorite iData Feature
My favorite features involved being able to see how other users were using the data on a query level. This provided a lot more context than just commented fields. ERDs and data lineage are all great. But seeing exactly how other users were using the data made it easy to understand(also they were great people to ping if you had questions).
It was so easy to quickly understand how the data was already being used. This provided several benefits including:
Reducing the duplication of work
Providing context on how data could join together(even across multiple data sources)
It would let you know who to ask questions about the data. Sure, the owner is one great place to start, but sometimes owners, over time, move away from datasets
Upon leaving the company formerly known as Facebook I felt like I kept stumbling on a new data catalog or discoverability tool every week. At this point, I am sure I have come across at least 3-5 dozen data discovery tools all of which add their own flair to helping teams manage their metadata.
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I have spent my career focused on all forms of data. I have focused on developing algorithms to detect fraud, reduce patient readmission and redesign insurance provider policy to help reduce the overall cost of healthcare. I have also helped develop analytics for marketing and IT operations in order to optimize limited resources such as employees and budget. I privately consult on data science and engineering problems both solo as well as with a company called Acheron Analytics. I have experience both working hands-on with technical problems as well as helping leadership teams develop strategies to maximize their data.
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[@dumisaralane]

Awesome video - thanks. I have started our organisation's data catalog. We are using Microsoft Purview. One thing I have already realised is that it takes time to document your enterprise data in a data catalog, you have to be patient and perhaps take it one business domain at a time depending on you organisation size. Happy cataloging everyone!

[@SeattleDataGuy]

Yeah, modern ones try to automate the process but someone always has to put in the metadata

[@advaitchabukswar4163]

Really great videos. Learning a lot.

[@SeattleDataGuy]

Glad you found it helpful!

[@juliustuckayo8973]

Another great nugget Ben.

[@SeattleDataGuy]

glad you liked it!

[@ArtemioP]

What are your thoughts on Open Metadata? It's a interesting one to me because of recent automatic Spark Lineage (Spline) integration.

[@ToToDarKDu59]

Interesting video Ben, thanks ! I'm curious on what is your vision on how to do the change management with the business part of the company (subject for another video ?)

[@SeattleDataGuy]

Great suggestion, i should do that video too!

[@Neferfifi21]

Hey Ben, thanks for this video. I was wondering if you have good data management book recommandations?

[@SeattleDataGuy]

DAMAs DMBOK isn't a bad place to start

[@lucashoww]

LOVE THY DATA!

[@SeattleDataGuy]

amen

[@rafaaferid1789]

I have a question 🙋 Would it be helpful to implement data catalog for application data? (Not analytics data)?

[@kopiking352]

iData is open source or just Facebook proprietary? if not, any data catalog open source to recommend?

[@SeattleDataGuy]

It is not open source, most people will use datahub for the opensource side of data catalogs

[@christinahumtsoe1262]

What about Microsoft Purview?

[@Buhlebendalo_Mavika]

If I could see an actual catalogue it will help. Can anybody help?

[@picious]

is MS Purview a tool for Data Catalog?

[@JLRocco43]

purview works very similar to informatica EDC where it "scans" locations and provides a data lineage in the end--so, its in that realm

[@dumisaralane]

Yes. We use it in our organisation.

[@SeattleDataGuy]

Yeah some people do use it for DC

[@Dave-nz5jf]

Ugggg nothing is more impotent than a data catalog. Data engineers hate it because it's not needed for replication / DE transformation , and business hates it because it puts governance around what they're trying to do . And it's in the nature of analysts to hate all kinds of governance / enforcement. Yuck.