Data Catalog

A data catalog is a metadata management tool that provides an inventory of all data assets within an organization - datasets, database tables, API endpoints, data pipelines - along with information about their structure, lineage, quality, ownership, and access permissions.

Data catalogs solve the discovery problem that emerges as organizations accumulate data from many sources. Without a catalog, analysts must ask colleagues what data exists, where to find it, and whether it is trustworthy - friction that significantly slows down data work.

A well-maintained catalog stores not just what data exists but also how it flows (lineage), when it was last updated (freshness), and whether quality checks pass. This information is the foundation of self-service analytics - enabling teams to find and trust data without depending on the team that created it.