Data Catalogs in the Enterprise: Applications and Integration

Abstract

Despite investing heavily in data-related technology and human resources, enterprises are still struggling to derive value from data. To foster data value creation and move toward a data-driven enterprise, adequate data management and data governance practices are fundamental. To support these practices, organizations are building (meta)data management landscapes by combining different tools. Data catalogs are a central part of these landscapes as they enable an overview of available data assets and their characteristics. To deliver their highest value, data catalogs need to be integrated with existing data sources and other data management tools. However, enterprises struggle with data catalog integration because (a) not all data catalog application types foster enterprise-wide data management and data governance alike, and (b) several technical characteristics of data catalog integration remain unclear. These include the supported data sources, data catalog federation, and ways to provision data access. To tackle these challenges, this paper first develops a typology of data catalog applications in the enterprise context. Based on a review of the academic literature and an analysis of data catalog offerings, it identifies four enterprise-internal and three cross-enterprise classes of data catalog applications. Second, an in-depth analysis of 51 data catalog offerings that foster enterprise-wide metadata management examines key characteristics of the technical integration of data catalogs.