The Data Library

Power comes from the sharing of information. The ability to access, gather, and use intelligence to advance an individual’s goal is critical to the continued evolution of society. Books are a means with which an individual can attain such knowledge. Just as books are a conduit of interaction between the reader and the words, the data catalog is a channel between the data owner and data consumer. As we look to the logistical distribution of books in modern times, we can benefit from evaluating and leveraging much of these lessons to incorporate in our data governance approach.

The organized distribution of books has been in existence since the earliest time. The concept of a library could date back to Babylonian in the first half of 3rd Millenium BC or under the Han dynasty in 206 BC. In modern times, books have taken many forms, such as e-books, audio books and paperback. As the type of books evolved, the repository that held these books has changed. You may have a brick-and-mortar library, or you have a digital library that leverages AI for discovery using natural language. Just as a library is an organized repository for the community to access information by way of books, a data catalog is a means for which individuals can gather knowledge with data to achieve a particular task. As technology evolves or data grows, so does the requirements for managing and facilitating discovery of the knowledge being housed. The growth of data in various locations and forms requires new ways to consolidate, curate and distribute to the masses responsibly.

Imagine if you are writing a WWII research paper and you attempt to search a digital library with no catalog system in place. How could you possibly find the books you need in any reasonable amount of time? You couldn't. Data discovery is no different. Consumers of data need to be able to easily find and access healthy data to complete their tasks. Curating data allows for individuals to find the data they need using business concepts. Microsoft Purview enables organizations to seamlessly curate their data for easy discovery and use. The Purview Data Catalog is powered by Business Concepts to help categorize data for easier management and discovery of data.

Business concepts are the conceptual and logical layers that sit on top of the physical layer. Think of Business Domains as the various genres of books and in our case, 'History'. For data, Business Domains are the first point of federation across the organization to empower different groups of data experts to own their own destiny. Within the History genre, you might have specific categories of information, such as 'WWII'. This layer of categorization aligns to the business concept, Data Products which are logical groupings of related physical assets. Organizations can curate Data Products further with other business concepts like glossary terms, CDEs or OKRs.

Applying AI on top of this for managing and discovering this data through natural language. Just as a student may search using terms 'World War II' in the digital library, a data consumer could search 'revenue sales in the United States' in the data catalog. When you empower your data stewards to effectively curate your business concepts, you empower all your catalog consumers to quickly find the data they need. Ancient civilizations were using their own form of classification of knowledge and the modern construct of a cataloging system for books applies just as easily as data. As organizations align their Data Governance practice with the business, creating a cataloging system aligned to the business is essential. Applying these Business Concepts to your Data Catalog creates a seamless data management and discovery experience. Microsoft Purview provides a way to empower organizations and accelerate their responsible AI innovation. ?