The Essence of Data Fabric
As I explained in my earlier blog, Data Fabric is a comprehensive, centralized, architectural approach to data management. Data Fabric aims to democratize data to empower the right stakeholders to do the right thing at the right time. It is the digital tapestry that connects disparate data sources, applications, and services into a harmonious whole.
This approach empowers organizations to manage, access, and leverage data with greater agility and efficiency. It breaks down data silos, making data accessible in real-time in a unified way, while ensuring data quality, security, and governance.
Introduction to Data Governance
Beneath the promising veneer of Data fabric, lies a critical enabler — Data Governance.
Data Governance is a process of ensuring the availability, usability, integrity, and security of the data across enterprise systems in line with the organization’s policies, and standards to facilitate effective data democratization.
Data Governance is the bedrock upon which Data Fabric is built, enabling organizations to harness the full potential of their data resources while ensuring security, quality, and compliance. Ironically, oftentimes, enterprises limit data governance to immediate priorities of security compliance. In my view, that is a myopic view which ignores the larger picture of data and analytics strategy. It must incorporate the achievement of business goals as a core tenet.
In this blog, we will explore how Data Governance enables the success of Data Fabric, and why data executives and data practitioners should make it a top priority.
Data Discoverability
Data discoverability is a critical element in the success of any data strategy. Data Fabric enhances data discoverability by providing a unified view of data. Yet, without proper data governance, this view can become overwhelming and hence less than effective. Data Governance facilitates the creation of metadata catalogs and data lineage information out of it, making it easier for data analysts, business, data scientists and engineers to find and make sense of the data they need. It provides a unified view of how the data looks like, the overall data relationship, and how to effectively use the data both in business and technology contexts.
Implementing Data Policies
Data Governance is not just about setting the rules; it’s also about implementing them effectively. It includes defining rules and standards along with a clear roadmap for all stakeholders to follow. The policy decisions need to be consistent across the organization. It helps eliminate ambiguity and reduce the risk of data misuse. Data governance fosters accountability across functional areas and technology verticals, thus promoting a culture of responsibility and accountability across the organization.
Assurance of Data Quality
In the data world, the famous saying ”Garbage In, Garbage Out (GIGO) can’t be more accurate. Data Fabric amplifies the importance of data quality. While monitoring the data quality standards becomes easier through data centralization, to maintain data quality across diverse sources, Data Governance is of paramount importance. It establishes protocols, guidelines, and processes for effective data quality.
Ensuring Compliance
While Data Fabric creates a unified way of data access, the complexity of data interactions within the fabric needs robust Data Governance. It ensures that sensitive data is protected, appropriate access control and restrictions are enforced, and compliance with regulatory mandates like GDPR, HIPPA, etc. are implemented, monitored, and controlled properly.
Access Control and Data Privacy
Since Data Fabric centralizes data availability and data access, this also means that a breach can have amplified consequences. Data Governance empowers organizations to implement fine-grained access controls and data privacy measures, ensuring that only authorized users have access to sensitive information. As the data flows from various sources to your enterprise data lake, the context of who has access to what has also to flow along with the data. As Data Fabric unifies your data, the access is also unified and hence, it has to ensure centralized data access and control.
Data Lifecycle Management
One of the key expectations from Data Fabric is to facilitate and simplify data lifecycle management by providing a unified and comprehensive view of data assets. However, without proper processes and responsibilities for data creation, maintenance, archiving, and deletion, effective data lifecycle management will never be fulfilled. This is where Data Governance is imperative, ensuring data remains relevant and compliant throughout its lifecycle.
Conclusion
In pursuing data democratization, enterprises are keeping the Data Fabric at the center stage of their data strategy. Yet, without proper Data Governance, the outcome will never be sublime. Data Governance is not an additional layer of a “good-to-have” process; rather, it’s the foundation upon which your Data Fabric is woven. It’s the guiding force that ensures you navigate the data landscape safely, securely, and compliantly.
To data executives and data practitioners, my suggestion is: “Embrace Data Governance as the enabler of your Data Fabric dreams. By weaving Data Governance into the very fabric of your data strategy, you’ll unlock the true potential of Data Fabric — a seamless, agile, and powerful data ecosystem that drives innovation and propels your organization to new heights in the data-driven era”.
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