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Empowering Data Discovery: Core Catalog Capabilities

The Core Principle: The best catalog automates the boring stuff (metadata collection) and empowers people to find, trust, and use data effortlessly.

  1. Automatic Discovery: A good catalog populates itself. It automatically scans the organization's platforms so no one has to document manually. This keeps the catalog current without creating busywork.
  2. Business Glossary: A single source of truth for definitions (what "Revenue" actually means). It ends metric debates and aligns the business.
  3. End-to-End Lineage: Shows data's full journey from source to dashboard. Debug errors in minutes by tracing exactly where numbers came from.
  4. Data Quality: Proactively monitors for errors and alerts you when something breaks. It turns blind panic into a controlled response by showing root cause and impact.
  5. Clear Ownership: Identifies who owns each dataset. This prevents orphaned data and gives users a clear contact for questions.
  6. Built-In Security: Respects existing access controls—users only see what they're allowed to. It enables safe self-service discovery without exposing sensitive data.
  7. Smart Search: Helps users find trusted data on the first try. This prevents questions from flooding other platforms and keeps the catalog as the source of truth.
  8. Collaboration: Captures tribal knowledge through comments and certifications. It preserves context that would otherwise be lost when people leave.
  9. AI Readiness: Exposes metadata via APIs so AI agents can consume it, future-proofing the organization for AI-driven insights.

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