What is Data Catalog?
TL;DR
A 'map for your data' that centralizes metadata about data assets to enable search, discovery, and trust assessment.
Data Catalog: Definition & Explanation
A Data Catalog centralizes metadata about an organization's scattered data assets—tables, columns, dashboards, data pipelines, ML models—to enable search, discovery, and trust assessment. It acts as a 'map for your data,' surfacing where data lives, who owns it, and how trustworthy it is. AI-powered auto-tagging, automatic column descriptions, and PII (personally identifiable information) detection are increasingly standard. When using generative AI for RAG or analysis, relying on data of unknown origin and unverified quality invites hallucinations and poor decisions, so data lineage—tracing where a number came from—underpins the trustworthiness of AI outputs. A catalog delivers value alongside data governance and stewardship practices. Leading tools include Atlan, Collibra, Alation, and Microsoft Purview.