Data Governance is the practice of creating processes, frameworks, and roles to manage an organization’s data. With today’s data-driven organizations focusing more on generating enormous amounts of data and analyzing them to pivot their business, it has become crucial to manage data the right way. Data Governance tools are the software applications that help you get there. They streamline internal governance processes by leveraging automation and establishing frameworks for these processes.
The popularity of Data Governance tools reflects the growing importance of automating services that are critical for security and regulatory compliance. They can help you organize, store, and monitor data in a way that supports overarching business objectives.
A common issue companies face is that data is often duplicated throughout the organization, which in turn stalls the decision-making process. In many cases, essential assets have been exposed to external agents because of the lack of necessary data security measures. Using Data Governance Tools, you can avoid these common yet fundamental governance issues.
Here are a few things the right governance tool should help you do:
- Enable data sharing within the organization
- Prevent any errors in the storage or management of data
- Enable data discovery, access, and cataloging capabilities
- Ensure that the data is used for the right purposes
- Establish security measures in place, enabling access only to authorized personnel
- Maintain compliance with current regulatory standards such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)
Other Definitions of a Data Governance Tool Include:
1. “A tool that aids in the process of creating and maintaining a structured set of policies, procedures, and protocols that control how an organization’s data is stored, used, and managed.” (Spiceworks)
2. A tool that can “assist in the creation and maintenance of an organized collection of policies, processes, and protocols that govern how data is stored, consumed, and managed in an organization.” (Hevo)
3. “A software application that provides management and automation capabilities to help data teams organize data to ensure availability, security, and integrity.” (Egnyte)
Features of Great Data Governance Tools Include:
- Master data and metadata management: The tool must help stewards track and manage the usage of their data. It should also extract and store the underlying metadata to increase searchability and linkability.
- Data classification and lifecycle management: It should help organizations capture, filter, store, and manage data in a way that’s fruitful for the business.
- Data policy management: The tool should ensure consistent processes and organizational alignment on data usage is established.
- Data ownership and stewardship: It should allow data stewards and owners to do all aspects of their job seamlessly – to maintain the integrity of their data.
- Visualization capabilities: It should help stakeholders visualize aspects like data lineage, relationships, pipelines, anomalies, policies, and more.
Benefits of Data Governance Tools Include:
- Enabling real-time data availability for all the stakeholders within the organization
- Increasing data quality using well-thought-out criteria during the intake process
- Helping document data to increase relevance, accessibility, and searchability
- Increasing organizational efficiency by automating tasks using advanced technologies
- Ensuring data is secure at all times – and following the right regulatory measures
- Enabling periodically automated governance checks to maintain data quality and accuracy
- Optimizing data to facilitate accurate decision-making within the organization
- Increasing revenue over time and maximizing the return on investment from these processes
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