Data Catalogue

Your expert for questions

Wolfgang Sock
Senior Manager at PwC Germany
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Trusted data at the touch of a button – full transparency with a data catalogue

In modern organisations, data volumes are growing rapidly and spread across numerous source systems such as data lakes, data warehouses and cloud silos. For data scientists and business analysts, the biggest challenge is often no longer the analysis itself, but the time-consuming search for, understanding of and validation of the right datasets. As a result, valuable information remains unused as “dark data”, while the data that is used is frequently affected by redundancy and inconsistency.

A central data catalogue resolves these issues by acting as an intelligent inventory for your entire data landscape. It automates metadata management, visualises data flows and creates a common language between IT and the business. In this way, sprawling data volumes are transformed into a well-organised, searchable and trustworthy data repository.

Effectively managing growing data volumes with a central data catalogue

Digital transformation means organisations now hold more data than ever before. This abundance is both a blessing and a curse. When analysed and used correctly, data provides new business insights, supports decision-making and drives value creation. At the same time, the sheer volume significantly increases the effort required for data management.

This is exactly where the concept of the data catalogue comes into play. A data catalogue does not store the operational data itself, but the metadata – information about structure, format, quality, frequency of use and ownership.

Beyond core inventory functions, a data catalogue automates many steps in data management. By combining technical metadata harvesting (for example from SQL databases, Hadoop clusters or BI tools such as Tableau and Power BI) with business context, it creates a holistic view. AI-based analysis helps automatically identify relationships between datasets and suggest classifications.

Full transparency through data lineage and democratised data use

One of the most powerful features of a modern data catalogue is data lineage. It allows you to trace back exactly which sources feed a specific figure and visualises the entire processing path at the touch of a button. This transparency is crucial not only for internal validation, but also for external audits and assured compliance with regulatory requirements. You can demonstrate precisely which transformations a dataset has undergone and who has had access to it.

A data catalogue is also a critical foundation for self-service analytics. It simplifies the discoverability of relevant data products and can serve as a data marketplace or library. This fosters a collaborative data culture in which knowledge is not locked in individual heads, but made available across the organisation.