The volume and potential value of data created, collected and managed by firms both large and small continues to grow at an exponential rate. As result, more C-Suite leaders are coming to recognize that responsibility for the accuracy, security and availability of data required to run the business no longer simply falls to the feet of IT. Either through formal or unofficial efforts, most organizations are working to address some degree of data governance issues by involving the consumers of that data.
We have seen two paths most companies take to address data governance concerns:
- Some continue to react to problems with old-fashioned fire drills, tamping down the current issue with a lot of meetings, some blame and a little hope. If your organization is in this camp, refer to our on-demand webinar Getting Started with (Just Enough) Data Governance.
- More data-driven organizations look to formalize data governance initiatives. They create data governance councils and steering committees, assigning data stewards and data owners to tackle their data challenges. For this group, once the initial hurdles of establishing a data governance team and creating formalized processes have been passed, the question of how will we sustain this? inevitably gets asked.
Many options for sustaining data governance
A variety of tools exist to help sustain data governance rigor. They range from legacy on-premise options from Informatica Enterprise Data Catalog and IBM Watson Knowledge Catalog to cloud-native technology from Alation, Collibra and others. Other players to note as the market continues to evolve include ASG Enterprise Data Intelligence, Data Advantage Group MetaCenter, data.world and Infogix Data360.
Alas, despite these varied technology solutions, many companies still rely on Microsoft Excel to curate and publish documentation. Considering that even the most sophisticated firms struggle with narrowing down the plethora of options to a manageable consideration set, this makes sense.
We wanted a tangible assist in sorting out the confusion. We took the bull by the horns and settled in to investigate nine notable options for on prem and cloud-native data governance support.
Comparing data governance vendors
After investigating the vendor solutions, we captured our research in this chart, supplementing it with available data from published sources.
In the chart, we summarize the relative size and geographic scope of selected data governance tool vendors and provide side-by-side comparisons of these factors
- Primary industry sectors
- Deployment options
- APIs
- Reporting
- App store/Marketplace
- AI Assist
- Reported cost
Last, we share each vendor’s approach to artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI/ML) and summarize known strengths and cautions to keep in mind when evaluating these tools.
Get help sorting out data governance options
Deciding where and when to initiate a data governance initiative can be a daunting task. A technology decision should not be where you start.
If you are just recognizing that you need to start on a data governance journey or if you are well on your way and need help sustaining your momentum, we can help. Contact us.
