Often, organizations have a lot of data assets and they are scattered throughout various databases. Without the proper data access process, it can be difficult for users to find and access the data they need. It can also be difficult to use the data to inform business decisions.

To simplify the access and use of data, organizations should create an active data catalog. This allows teams to work more efficiently and increase the value of data. The catalog also ensures more secure data access.

An active data catalog should provide an intuitive user experience and provide an easy-to-use natural language search facility. It should also allow users to rate the quality of data. It should also incorporate community-based quality control.

An active data catalog can also help reduce the burden of manual data curation tasks. Using AI and machine learning, these automated curation features can identify similarities between data sets and determine the impact of changes to data assets. These features can also help trace the lineage of the data in the catalog.

The data catalog also provides an inventory of the data assets in an organization. It helps business analysts and data engineers find data faster and easier. It also helps to eliminate data silos within the organization. It can be easily connected to analytics platforms and BI tools.

Modern data catalogs offer a number of powerful capabilities, including automated data curation features. These features use AI and machine learning to identify similarities between data sets, track the movement of data through pipelines, and analyze the impact of changes to data assets.