Wayne Eckerson summarized the key points he heard during the CDO TechVent session on Data Governance Platforms on April 26, 2022.
“Some speakers joked that we’ll be discussing metadata swamps in three years.”
Key Takeaways
Data Governance Technology
1
Need for DG Platform
All speakers agreed that organizations need for a data governance platform that integrates core functionality required to run a DG program, including a portal, data catalog, business glossary, policy catalog, and workflow engine, among other things. (See Eckerson Group’s technology framework.)
2
Automation is a Necessity
Given the rising volume and diversity of data, the continued complexity and velocity of regulations, and high employee turnover in organizations, all speakers agreed that you can’t make data governance work these days without ML/AI-enabled tools, customizable workflows, and metadata-driven collaboration tools.
3
Data Governance Will Soon Be a Feature
Cloud, database, data integration, data quality, and analytics vendors are adding data governance capabilities. Soon, data governance will be a feature of every platform, which will offer its own data governance features and integrate with third party data governance products.
4
Active Metadata
Many speakers noted that metadata is no longer just for viewing. Many products now use metadata to drive data governance and collaboration processes Some also embed metadata in applications to make it easier for business users to understand the context of the data they’re viewing or using.
5
The Next Frontier: Metadata Management
As metadata becomes more prominent in applications, organizations will need to focus on managing metadata, just like they manage data today. Some speakers joked that in three years, we’ll be discussing “metadata swamps” in the same we talk about “data swamps” today.