SecondBrain/10 Knowledge/CTO Academy/Data/Data Catalog.md

MD file: Data Catalog.md
Estimated reading time: 10–12 minutes

Data Catalog

Definition

A Data Catalog is a searchable inventory of an organization's data assets and their Metadata.

It helps people discover what data exists, what it means, where it comes from, who owns it, and whether it is trusted.

Simple Mental Model

A Data Catalog is Google for your organization's data.

How It Works

A Data Catalog may inventory:

• Databases
• Tables
• Columns
• Files
• Dashboards
• Reports
• Metrics
• Models
• Pipelines
• APIs

An entry might show owner, status, description, grain, source, refresh, quality, and downstream use.

Example

Search:

Revenue

Results:

Net Advertising Revenue [Certified]
Subscription Revenue [Certified]
Gross Advertising Revenue
Revenue Forecast [Restricted]

Each result includes an owner and business definition.

How It Fits Into the Bigger Picture

[[Metadata]]
     ↓
Collected and organized in
     ↓
[[Data Catalog]]
     ↓
Datasets + Metrics + Reports + Owners

The catalog may surface Data Lineage, Data Quality, Business Glossary, Data Owner, and Data Steward information.

My Company / Real-World Context

A new employee should be able to search Video Completion Rate and see its definition, owner, dataset, source system, refresh, and dashboards that use it.

CTO Perspective

Buying a catalog tool does not create governance. A catalog full of stale descriptions is only expensive documentation.

The hard part is the operating model: who maintains it, who certifies assets, what "trusted" means, and how deprecation works.

Questions to Ask

• Can employees discover trusted data without knowing who created it?
• How do we mark certified vs experimental datasets?
• Who maintains catalog entries?
• Does the catalog show Data Lineage?
• Does it expose Data Quality status?
• Are people actually using it?

Meeting Scenario

Situation: Someone proposes an expensive enterprise Data Catalog because "every mature organization needs one."

Possible response:

"Before selecting a platform, let's define the problem. Are we struggling with discoverability, ownership, duplicated datasets, lineage, business definitions, or all of these? Then we can determine the lightest solution that meets the need."

Key Takeaways

• A Data Catalog is a searchable inventory of data assets and metadata.
• It supports discoverability, self-service, and governance.
• A tool alone does not create governance.
• Operating model and adoption matter more than the interface.

Related Concepts

• Metadata
• Data Governance
• Data Lineage
• Data Quality
• Business Glossary
• Data Owner
• Data Steward