Last-mile governance: the key to unlocking data democratization

[jrineakter]

Connecting data to the people who need it is a lot like shipping, hooking up fiber internet or running a marathon – the last mile is always the hardest. Some data catalogs do solid work pounding the data-governance pavement for the first 25 miles of the race, but when it comes to crossing the finish line, actually providing safe, secure, and auditable access to data, they come up short. Other data catalogs start on the podium. That is, they get the glory of granting access to data, but you don’t know where it came from or how it got there.

To effectively democratize access to data, you need a data catalog that covers the last mile.

What we do in the shadows
Most data catalogs in market today aren’t designed to both govern data and provision access to it – usually one use case is prioritized over the other.

If your data catalog prioritizes governance, you risk alienating data consumers who are beholden to complicated processes for accessing data. Rather than fill out paperwork, many consumers usa whatsapp number data will break rank and go directly to the source (i.e. your IT team). Not only does that mean email or Slack hell for all involved, it can also mean not knowing who has access to data or why.

But prioritizing access by just allowing tables to be queried directly in the catalog doesn’t help either. While it may enable exploration, it doesn’t ensure that the data is used efficiently or correctly. It doesn’t give your stewards or data product managers the ability to curate data and guide analysts and data scientists to the data best suited for the job. Compliance headaches? Yep. Rogue datasets? Check. Unverified users accessing data? You got it.

A data catalog and governance solution should be your front office for data and analytics, not a place that encourages black boxes and shadow IT. A shopping cart for data that doesn’t deliver the last mile, doesn’t get the job done. But there is good news. One data catalog is rethinking how data governance is done.