How your organization organizes and secures its data can be just as critical as the data itself. Building a data structure that’s as accessible as it is secure means far more than granting broad access—it requires empowering your teams to find, understand, and trust their data.
Data catalogs are the backbone of an organized, secure data landscape. When choosing between implementing a single, unified data catalog or opting for multiple catalogs to meet specific needs, you’ll need to look at how each approach shapes data governance, security, and accessibility differently.
What are Data Catalogs?
Data catalogs are central hubs for discovering, understanding, and utilizing a company’s data assets. Data catalogs and data security platforms (DSPs) are complementary technologies that work together to enhance data security. By providing a comprehensive view of data assets, their sensitivity, and usage patterns, data catalogs enable DSPs to implement effective security controls and protect sensitive information.
Whether it’s best to implement a single catalog or multiple data catalogs depends on several factors, including your organization’s size, complexity, and specific data management needs. You must also consider how each approach could affect your business’s data security, regulatory compliance, and internal governance.
Single Data Catalog: Streamlined Access and Centralized Control
A single data catalog is a centralized repository that provides a unified view of all data assets across an organization. Its advantages include:
- Centralized management. All data assets are managed from a single location, simplifying governance and security measures.
- Improved data discovery. Users can easily search and find the data they need, regardless of its location or format.
- Enhanced data quality. Consistent data definitions and standards can be enforced across the organization.
- Reduced data duplication. By identifying redundant data sources, organizations can streamline their data pipelines and reduce storage costs.
While most companies historically have leaned toward multiple data catalogs, there’s been a noticeable shift in recent years toward consolidating them into single data catalogs where possible. They offer a more straightforward governance and security approach and wants to make it easier to oversee access and enforce standards
However, some organizations still maintain multiple catalogs, particularly those in the healthcare and finance industries, where they must comply with stringent regulatory requirements or complex data ecosystems.
Multiple Data Catalogs: Flexibility for Diverse Data Needs
Multiple data catalogs are separate repositories for different data domains or business units, which can be beneficial in certain industries and scenarios:
- Data domain specialization. Each catalog can be tailored to a domain’s needs, providing more granular control over data access and management.
- Scalability. As data volumes grow, multiple catalogs can help manage the increased load and complexity.
- Data security and privacy. Sensitive data can be segregated into separate catalogs with stricter access controls.
Organizations using multiple data catalogs tend to require the flexibility and customization they provide, accommodating various data requirements and simplifying data management.
However, despite offering specialization and scalability, adding additional catalogs can significantly increase complexity, resulting in coordination and integration challenges. Because each catalog brings its own governance, access controls, and maintenance needs, inconsistencies and silos can occur if they aren’t meticulously managed. Furthermore, managing a decentralized catalog setup might require multiple systems and processes. This can dilute data oversight, reduce data quality, and create inefficiencies as teams struggle to maintain consistent standards.
Data Catalog Features: Leveraging Data Effectively
Three core features are essential to all data catalogs:
- Data discovery and inventory. A comprehensive list of all data assets, including their location, format, and ownership.
- Metadata management. Detailed information about data, including data definitions, data quality metrics, and data lineage.
- Search and filtering. Powerful search capabilities find specific data assets based on various criteria, such as keywords, tags, or business terms.
Advanced features in modern data catalogs add significant value beyond these essentials. For instance, data lineage enables tracking data’s origin and transformation over time, offering insight into its impact and dependencies across the organization.
Data quality is another priority, with metrics and automated checks that monitor and improve data’s reliability. Data profiling tools provide a more in-depth look at data characteristics, analyzing data types, distributions, and outliers.
Data governance features help keep everything consistent and secure by setting rules and standards for how data should be managed and protected. Many data catalogs now facilitate collaboration, too, with features like comments, ratings, and notifications making it easier for data teams to work together.
Integration with other data tools makes it easy to analyze, visualize, and move data where it’s needed. Security features add an extra layer of protection by letting you precisely control who can access what. Plus, data privacy options help ensure you follow necessary regulations like the EU’s GDPR and California’s CCPA, making it simpler to handle sensitive information responsibly and stay compliant.
Single Data vs. Multiple Data Catalogs: How to Choose
Data catalogs improve data accessibility, enhance data quality, and strengthen data governance. They can also simplify data utilization and accelerate data-driven decision-making. Which approach your organization takes depends on its unique structure and data needs. In some cases, a single data catalog like Collibra integrated with a DSP like Velotix offers streamlined governance and simpler data sharing across departments. For organizations concerned about mapping data access permissions across platforms, Velotix discovers data for the context of enabling granular global policies that apply to every byte of data anyways it sits.
AI-powered Velotix is an efficient, tech-agnostic solution that strengthens data catalog capabilities and enables organizations to either leverage their existing catalog or utilize its integrated data cataloging capabilities. Instead of having to acquire a second catalog, Velotix enables a more unified approach to data security, allowing for consistent governance, enhanced accessibility, and advanced security – all without compromising your existing system’s flexibility.
With Velotix, you gain advanced control over data access, helping your organization maintain a high standard of data security and usability. To learn more, contact us today to book a demo.
