Top 10 Metadata Management Tools

Here are 10 popular metadata management tools:

• Collibra
• Informatica Metadata Manager
• IBM InfoSphere Information Governance Catalog
• Alation
• Informatica Metadata Manager
• Adaptive Metadata Manager
• Data3Sixty Govern
• Infogix Data360
• Oracle Enterprise Metadata Management
• Collibra Catalog

1. Collibra

Collibra’s Data Dictionary documents an organization’s technical metadata and how it is used. It describes the structure of a piece of data, its relationship to other data, and its origin, format, and use. The solution serves as a searchable repository for users who need to understand how and where data is stored and how it can be used. Users can also document roles and responsibilities and utilize workflows to define and map data. Collibra is unique because the product was built with business end-users in mind.

2. Informatica Metadata Manager

Informatica Metadata Management allows enterprises to tap into four major categories of data, including technical, database schemas, mappings, and code, business (glossary terms, governance processes), operational and infrastructure (run-time stats and time stamps), and usage (user ratings and comments). Informatica creates a knowledge graph of an organization’s data assets and their relationships by applying AI and machine learning. Active metadata serves as the foundation for Informatica’s Intelligent Data Platform.

3. IBM InfoSphere Information Governance Catalog

Description: IBM’s InfoSphere Information Server features a metadata repository that stores metadata from suite tools and external tools and databases and enables sharing among them. Users can import metadata into the repository from multiple sources, export metadata by various methods, and transfer metadata between design, test, and production repositories. Changes that are made in the repository are automatically made throughout the suite and use standard relational database technology.

4. Alation

The value proposition for potential buyers: The vendor’s Data Catalog solution delivers automated data inventory within a highly searchable catalog, along with a powerful recommendation engine. The approach is designed for both data scientists and business users. It steers clear of technical jargon and promotes a best-practice approach through collaborative endorsements and warnings. Alation was ranked as a “Leader” in the 2018 Gartner Magic Quadrant (MQ) for Metadata Management Solutions.

Key Values/Differentiators:

• Alation supports numerous key metadata management tasks, including data valuation, the use of active metadata and trust models for decision-making, and proprietary frameworks designed for data scientists, data analysts, business users, and others seeking information.
• The vendor’s partnerships include many industry heavyweights, including Teradata, Tableau, MicroStrategy, Hortonworks, Cloudera, IBM, Microsoft, Vertica, and Trifacta. Alation supports a wide array of use cases and offers a high level of flexibility in the way metadata is ingested and managed.
• The platform offers rich collaborative tools that allow groups and users to share information and insights derived from raw data. This includes data about top users, column-level popularity of data, and shared data and filters. It also includes company-specific data dictionaries and wiki articles.

5. Informatica Metadata Manager

Informatica Metadata Management allows enterprises to tap into four major categories of data, including technical, database schemas, mappings, and code, business (glossary terms, governance processes), operational and infrastructure (run-time stats and time stamps), and usage (user ratings and comments). Informatica creates a knowledge graph of an organization’s data assets and their relationships by applying AI and machine learning. Active metadata serves as the foundation for Informatica’s Intelligent Data Platform.

6. Adaptive Metadata Manager

Adaptive Metadata Manager comprises a number of highly configurable software components that provide an organization with the eight-core capabilities required to govern and improve virtually any data-driven business capability. These capabilities are Data Lineage, Data Quality, Impact Analysis, Business Terminology, Business to Technical Traceability, Version Management, Change Approval Workflow, Stewardship, and Automated Harvesting & Stitching.

7. Data3Sixty Govern

Infogix Data360 Govern is an enterprise metadata management, data governance, and data catalog solution that discovers the quality, value, and trustworthiness of your data sets. It enables you to quickly crawl, profile, score, and manage complex metadata. You’ve then built a single, searchable inventory of data assets for future use.

8. Infogix Data360

Infogix offers a suite of integrated data governance capabilities that include business glossaries, data cataloging, data lineage, and metadata management. The tool also provides customizable dashboards and zero-code workflows that adapt as each organizational data capability matures. Reference customers use Infogix for data governance and for risk, compliance, and data value management. The product is also flexible and easy to use and supports smaller data analysis jobs as well.

9. Oracle Enterprise Metadata Management

Oracle Enterprise Metadata Management is a metadata management platform that can harvest and catalog metadata from any provider. The product allows for interactive searching and browsing of the metadata as well as providing data lineage, impact analysis, semantic definition, and semantic usage analysis for any metadata asset within the catalog. Oracle Enterprise Metadata Management also touts advanced algorithms that stitch together metadata assets from each of the providers.

10. Collibra Catalog

Description: Collibra’s Data Dictionary documents an organization’s technical metadata and how it is used. It describes the structure of a piece of data, its relationship to other data, and its origin, format, and use. The solution serves as a searchable repository for users who need to understand how and where data is stored and how it can be used. Users can also document roles and responsibilities and utilize workflows to define and map data. Collibra is unique because the product was built with business end-users in mind.

Rajesh Kumar

I’m Rajesh Kumar, a DevOps, SRE, DevSecOps, Cloud, and Platform Engineering expert passionate about sharing practical knowledge, real-world experiences, and industry best practices. I have worked at Cotocus and regularly write about technology, travel, investing, health, product reviews, and digital marketing through my various platforms.

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