What is Data Governance? Top Data Governance Tools for Data Science and Machine Learning Research in 2022

What is Data Governance?

The process of developing internal data standards and enacting rules governing who has access to data and how it is utilized for analytical applications and business operations is known as data governance. A good data governance program guarantees that data is reliable, consistent, and accessible and that its use complies with applicable rules and regulations regarding data protection. In addition to master data management (MDM) projects, it frequently includes data quality improvement initiatives.

Organizations can automate several management tasks for a governance program with data governance solutions. Software of this type offers features that facilitate the formulation of data governance policies, the construction of business glossaries and data catalogs, data mapping and classification, workflow management, collaboration, and process documentation. Software for data governance can be used in conjunction with MDM, metadata management, and data quality solutions.

Data Governance’s Importance

Data governance aims to promote confident decisions supported by solid data resources. Building policies that define data ownership, duties, and delegates are the goal of data governance. The goal is to build a unified knowledge of each data silo in the system by creating standard data definitions and formats. Data governance is crucial for any firm because of this.

Data management, management, and storage inside an organization are all governed by a set of policies, procedures, and protocols created and maintained using data governance tools. Data Governance frameworks inside an organization frequently explain and record data’s what, who, why, and how. When organizational data is arranged and restricted according to predetermined rules and standards, consistency and accessibility across the process are improved.

Here are some of the most well-known tools for data governance

Alation Data Governance App

To help businesses catalog and enable access to their data, Alation was formed in 2012 and first provided a data catalog platform. Although the company’s core product, Alation Data Catalog, is still available, a companion data governance solution was made available in September 2021. The Alation Data Governance App software is produced to make it easier to give users of IT systems, especially those in multi-cloud and hybrid cloud computing environments, secure access to reliable data.

Use the Policy Center feature of the Alation Data Governance App to establish governance policies and see how they are mapped to particular data assets. The governance tool also has a workbench for data stewardship that automates data curation tasks and uses machine learning and artificial intelligence to find potential data stewards based on how they use data.

ASG Data Intelligence

ASG Data Intelligence is marketed as a solution for “data distrust” by ASG Technologies, a division of Rocket Software. According to the organization, a sizable amount of the richness of data created and collected frequently goes to waste because business managers, data scientists, and other end users can’t discover or need to comprehend and trust it. The tool, also known as ASG DI, intends to assist businesses in addressing those problems through a collection of metadata management, data lineage, and data governance features.

The metadata-driven software creates end-to-end views of data as it flows through IT systems and can be used to set usage restrictions and provide information about the data’s business meaning. Data governance teams, for instance, can manage data-related concerns, authorize business glossary additions, and perform other activities thanks to integrated governance workflows and data stewardship features. To manage user access to particular data sets, ASG DI additionally provides role-based access control.

Ataccama One

Combining data quality, MDM, and other functionalities in a single platform, Ataccama One aspires to be a one-stop shop for all an organization’s data management and governance requirements. Data professionals, including governance teams, data scientists, data stewards, other data analysts, and data engineers, are the target audience for the AI-driven software. It operates in on-premises, cloud, and hybrid environments.

With the help of data integration capabilities, a data catalog, reference data management tools, and a data narrative module, Ataccama One enables enterprises to combine their efforts in MDM and data quality. The program has features including a comprehensive audit history and role-based security and was designed for enterprise-wide installations and use in highly regulated industries.

Apache Atlas

Apache Atlas is an open-source application for businesses with data-intensive platforms that offers fundamental metadata management and data governance features. Although it is primarily intended for use in Hadoop clusters, it may also share metadata with programs and tools outside the Hadoop environment to facilitate system integration for analytics applications.

Organizations can use Atlas to catalog, categorize, and regulate their data assets and provide collaboration tools for data scientists, other analysts, and their data governance team. Atlas was created by Hortonworks, a provider of big data platforms acquired by rival Cloudera in 2019, with assistance from several user groups. In 2015, the software was transferred to the Apache Software Foundation for continued development.

Axon Data Governance

Informatica promotes Axon Data Governance as a platform that helps companies to provide reliable data to end users and data stewards at an enterprise level. The platform allows stewards with data discovery, quality evaluation, and communication. Additionally, it enables governance teams to build curated data marketplaces to aid in business and analytics users’ discovery, access, and comprehension of data. Informatica acquired it when it acquired the original creator Diaku in 2017.

The Axon tool can be used by data governance teams to create a standard data dictionary, specify relationships between data pieces, find gaps in data sets, and connect governance policies to the data they influence. End-to-end business flows can also be developed to provide visible perspectives of data lineage.

Collibra Data Governance

Data scientists are supposed to spend most of their time gathering, cleansing, and organizing data. Collibra Data Governance, a component of its Data Intelligence Cloud platform, wants to change that and assist enterprises in providing them and other end users with reliable data. The data governance solution, according to Collibra, can be used to operationalize governance procedures and processes, establish a shared vocabulary for talking about data assets, and make it simpler to locate and comprehend pertinent data.

In addition to a data dictionary for describing information, the product also offers a business lexicon for defining and governing business terminology. It also includes tools for maintaining reference data, a “data helpdesk” feature for reporting and resolving data problems, and a Collibra Assessments module for evaluating potential privacy risks related to using personal data in business operations.

Data360 Govern

Every successful connection is built on trust, and the data resources from Precisely’s Data360 Govern software are designed to foster that assurance. Organizations may build an enterprise data governance framework with Data360 Govern that features a data catalog and metadata management tools. When Precisely purchased Infogix in 2021, it also acquired the data governance tool and data quality and analytics technologies that are also a part of the Data360 portfolio.

The technology allows real-time tracking of how data supports various business processes and results to help businesses achieve their business goals. Dashboards and reports can be customized to display specific findings. Additionally, it automates metadata gathering, data governance operations, and the import of data quality scores from Precisely’s Data360 DQ+ product and other vendors’ competing data quality technologies.

Erwin Data Intelligence

Fans of the renowned literary investigator Sherlock Holmes know his extraordinary awareness and observational skills. Quest Software promises comparable capabilities with Erwin Data Intelligence, the company’s enterprise data governance tool. The technology “provides data awareness, competence and knowledge to support data governance and business enablement,” according to the company, in enterprises.

The program, formerly known as Erwin Data Intelligence by Quest, integrates distinct Erwin data catalogs, data literacy, and data quality solutions into a single integrated suite. With governance controls to guarantee that users adhere to internal data policies and best practices, it is intended to assist IT and data governance teams in making available data assets more apparent to end customers and offer instructions on how to use them. Role-based views can be developed to provide context on pertinent data for distinct user groups.

OneTrust DataDiscovery for Data Governance

OneTrust DataDiscovery for Data Governance integrates an integrated data catalog, a set of data governance policy management features, and AI-driven data discovery and classification capabilities. It is a part of an extensive product range that OneTrust provides, which also supports programs for data privacy, risk management, and similar business topics. Like the company’s other solutions, OneTrust Athena, an AI, machine learning, and automation bot, powers the data governance solution.

Athena can automatically locate applications and data repositories and inventory their data assets to categorize, classify, enhance, and tag data sets. When finished, the governance tool may automatically apply governance policies and controls based on data classification, create a data catalog and a complete data dictionary, link the record to a business lexicon, and more.

Oracle Enterprise Metadata Management

Oracle Enterprise Metadata Management enables businesses to collect, categorize, and manage metadata from relational databases, data warehouses, Hadoop clusters, business intelligence platforms, and other data sources in Oracle and non-Oracle systems (OEMM). Additionally, the tool has interactive search and browsing capabilities that may be used to examine the metadata, access model diagrams, and access metadata reports. It also offers functions for data lineage tracing and effect analysis.

With OEMM, you can construct internal data review boards, annotate and tag metadata, and make comments on data. OEMM also offers a set of collaborative data governance and stewardship tools. The software enables governance teams to create corporate glossaries that provide semantic lineage analysis and may import current metadata standards from Oracle and third-party systems.

SAP Master Data Governance

As implied by the name, SAP Master Data Governance is made expressly to assist enterprises in governing and managing master data as part of MDM efforts. It is a component of the SAP Business Technology Platform, an extensive collection of data management, analytics, artificial intelligence, and related technologies. The application has built-in data quality management features and may be used to centrally oversee and aggregate master data from diverse source systems.

A cloud edition of the governance tool that can enable a federated network of master data governance settings utilizing a hub-and-spoke design is also available from SAP. Both versions run on top of the company’s flagship S/4HANA ERP system. In that configuration, the application-specific attributes are maintained by different governance systems in the business units and departments. In contrast, the core master data attributes are governed by a single system.

SAS Information Governance

Software provider SAS Institute hopes that by empowering data governance and data stewards teams to ensure that data assets are secured and used appropriately, business and analytics users would spend less time seeking and assessing data and more time conducting analysis. The governance software is also marketed separately as a standalone item and as an optional add-on to several SAS analytics tools.

The program can automatically crawl data sources, classify data, and locate sensitive information. It also includes a data catalog. The metadata can be searched by users in the record to identify pertinent data, reports, and other analytics assets; the search results include details on data quality, usage metrics, and other factors to aid users in determining whether the found data is appropriate their analytics needs. ​

Semarchy xDM

The Semarchy United Data Platform incorporates it with a complementary xDI tool for data integration. It uses both of them and includes Semarchy xDM as its data management and governance component. Thanks to integrated workflows and data enrichment features, the xDM software provides MDM, data governance, reference data management, and data quality duties in a single environment.

Organizations can use the tool to create data models for particular domains or business use cases that include integrated rules, policies, and workflows. It can also help create dashboards to display data metrics and cooperative governance processes. Individual data stores for various data models have also included a metadata repository. The latter also records information on data lineage, and several data stores can be coupled to a single metadata repository.

Syniti Knowledge Platform

A comprehensive set of data management features, including data governance capabilities supported by an embedded data catalog, are available through the Syniti Knowledge Platform. The Syniti software can automatically generate metadata by ingesting data from hundreds of source systems. Machine learning methods are then used to further automate the building of semantic models that link the metadata to an organization’s business terminology and procedures.

Additionally, the program enables enterprises to trace data lineage, apply version controls to data quality and governance requirements, audit data sets and their usage for legal compliance, and track data ancestry. In addition to offering a related Data Jumpstart service with dashboards and pre-built reports to speed up data quality, MDM, and data governance efforts and assist in establishing a business case for extending them, Syniti—which changed its name from BackOffice Associates in 2019—also do such.

Talend Data Fabric

Talend Data Fabric is a platform that integrates application and API integration, data governance technologies, data integration, and data quality. Talend’s forum includes a data integrity and governance solution that provides automatic quality checks and other data quality capabilities to assist organizations in ensuring that data is accurate and reliable. They can then use the technology to handle governance and data stewardship procedures.

A data catalog that can automatically organize, crawl, and augment metadata is part of the software. The Talend Trust Score is a platform component that determines instantaneous scores on the trustworthiness of data sets, is a data inventory feature that helps metadata management, may identify data silos, and can provide information on how reliable data is. A team-based workflow for prioritizing and tracking projects is one of the features of data stewardship, which also includes a monitoring function.

OvalEdge

OvalEdge is a data catalog and a suite of cost-effective data governance solutions. It becomes a flexible product for data discovery, governance, and adherence to data privacy norms by combining both features.

Some of its characteristics include automated data lineage, business vocabulary, procedures for data access, peer collaboration, etc.

Integrate.io

A platform for data integration, ETL, and ELT is called Integrate.io. It is a cloud-based tool for building short and visually appealing data pipelines for your data warehouse. It offers features for integrating, processing, and getting data ready for cloud analytics. You can use the platform to implement an ETL, ELT, or replication solution.

Run straightforward replication operations and complex transformations on the flexible and scalable Integrate.io platform. The workflow engine of Integrate.io can be used to orchestrate and schedule data pipelines.

Dataddo

Dataddo is a cloud-based, no-coding ETL platform that offers both technical and non-technical users completely flexible data integration. It features a large selection of connectors and fully customizable metrics, allowing users to quickly and easily build robust data pipelines.

The platform integrates smoothly with your current data stack, so there’s no need to expand your data architecture with extraneous parts. You can concentrate on integrating your data rather than wasting time getting to know the platform, thanks to Dataddo’s user-friendly interface and straightforward setup.

Atlan

Atlan is a cutting-edge data workspace that makes managing and administering your data ecosystem easier while maintaining data democratization.

Atlan is where you can bring together different people – analysts, engineers, scientists, and business users – tools and data to create a frictionless collaborative experience. It was built to use open-source frameworks like Apache Atlas. It has capabilities like automatic data lineage generation and PII data identification that let you design dynamic access controls and best-in-class data governance.

IBM Data Governance

Using IBM Data Governance, you can learn more about data items’ physical location, meaning, features, and usage. Both structured and unstructured data can be used with it. It will assist you in reducing compliance-related risks.

It offers features including a flexible approach to data governance, data cataloging, and acquiring pertinent data for significant data initiatives. Additionally, it provides privacy and protection features like safeguarding personally identifiable information, consumer intelligence predictions, and personal health data.

Clearswift

Information visibility, tracking and tracing of information, and adaptive redaction are capabilities and functionalities of the Clearswift Information Governance server. By examining the data, it enforces policies intelligently. It automatically enacts policies based on content, authorization, and regulatory requirements. It can keep track of a lot of data. It can keep track of a lot of communication activities.

LogicGate

An enterprise-focused GRC solution is LogicGate Risk Cloud. The software from the company offers data protection, privacy, and compliance, so you may uphold legal requirements without compromising innovation. According to the business, their GRC platform “let[s] you cooperate, automate, expand, and adapt as you go.” The technology also assists companies in identifying, tracking, and managing business risks throughout the organization.

Riskonnect

A comprehensive risk management solution, Riskonnect GRC software aids in regulatory compliance for businesses of all sizes. The platform was created primarily for process automation, business intelligence, risk analysis, audit, compliance, and risk management. While providing compliance with many international standards, it gives enterprises a single point of access to review, analyze, and report on data throughout their whole enterprise.

Claravine

Customers can drive internal standardization with Claravine’s Data Standards Cloud across data sets, types, and sources. Utilizing referenceable fields and descriptions, the solution enables the generation of simple-to-understand requirements. To maintain standards, users can audit, monitor, and standardize data, and automatically check tag placement and setup across landing pages. With standard and bespoke settings, Claravine claims to be able to grant users or groups the appropriate rights and permissions, as well as evaluate, audit, and visualize platform activities with dashboards.

Egnyte

No matter where the files are located, Egnyte provides content security, compliance, and collaboration solution that controls them. Through a unified solution, the product offers a range of user access capabilities, lifecycle management, data security, compliance, business process management, and API connection. Information governance capabilities are all critical and sensitive data, automating compliance, and other features. Granular policy controls for remote work and upgrading file systems are other selling points for Egnyte.

Immuta

Users of Immuta’s automated data governance platform may find and access data through a specialized data catalog. The software includes a user-friendly policy builder that enables security leaders to design policies across data in plain English and without programming. Immuta also permits legal teamwork through projects and regulated workplaces where users can exchange information. Users automatically assume the correct access and controls when they transfer tasks. Immuta is a containerized solution that may be utilized on-premises, in the cloud, or in a hybrid architecture.

Segment

Segment delivers a customer data platform (CDP) that gathers user events from We Band mobile apps and offers the company a complete data toolkit. Depending on the customer profile, the product comes in three iterations (Segment for Marketing Teams, Product Teams, or Engineering Teams). For Segment to function, you must be able to standardize data collecting, combine user information, and route customer data to any system that requires it. More than 300 integrations are also touted for the solution.