Data governance has been growing its prominence in different organizations and sectors. This has also increased the need for data governance tools. Today, various sectors and organizations are trying to archive the best data governance tools, to amplify the quality and security of their data. The top data governance tools are being selected as they come with more options for securing and converting data qualitatively. The data governance tools list has no end. However, more and more selection on a particular data governance tool has popularized it. Data governance tools serve an organization in numerous manners and they ease the task for data governance. 

Understanding what are data governance tools, is essential to begin knowing them and their importance. This is the preliminary step before we understand the importance of data governance tools. Also, once we know the proper meanings regarding data governance tools, it would aid us in knowing each of their specialty and use. 

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What Are Data Governance Tools?

Data governance tools are the tools specialized to perform the plans of data governance. Any organization or sector that uses data governance tools first understands the need for them and how to utilize them. These tools contribute majorly to smoothen the workflow regarding the volumes of data. They also help in providing multiple options for pre-structuring of the data and information. The organization also gets options for designing its policies regarding data and providing integrity to it. 

These data governance tools help in defining accountability for decision-making [1]. They also make it easier for delineating the decision-making domains for the organization by amplifying data governance [1]. The importance of these data governance tools reaches different sectors today. They have been a continuous boon for various researches regarding cloud computing and communication technology [2]. 

The list of data governance tools has contributed to social media platforms too. It helps companies and startups to reach their potential customers. It also helps them to analyze how strong their customer base is growing. The data governance tools also help them to understand what new strategy or modification could be applied. 

Lastly, data governance tools help in ensuring that the data stored is protected, accessible and measurable. With these data governance tools, it becomes easy for the organization to organize its data structure and avoid any kind of malfunctioning in long-term growth. 

Need Of Data Governance Tools

Now that we know what are data governance tools, we must be familiarized with their needs too. The need for data governance tools expands to various uses. They are not only the care bearers for the data but also assist in various other needs. 

Below is some points that emphasize over the need for data governance tools:

• Data governance tools make it an easy task to understand, interpret and take new actions for data analytics. 
• Data governance tools help you to document your information and data which avoids any misplacement in future
• The top data governance tools help you to eliminate any kind of data inconsistencies and obstructions. This again is usual for data that are more in number or complex. 
• Data governance tools ensure that there are regulatory requirements fulfilled at all levels of data governing. 
• The use of data governance tools reduces the costs for data management and ensures high data quality. 
• Data governance tools make it easier to distribute roles and responsibilities. This ensures that there is better distribution of data in the right situation.  [ need for data governance tools ]

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7 Best Data Governance Tools of 2022

We know the importance of data governance in this era of technological advancements. But there are a lot of data governance tools out there to help you. Here is a list of the top data governance tools that you can use;

Alation Data Catalog

Alation Data Catalog is one of the best data governance tools to find, understand and govern the data of an enterprise. It provides users a single stop for all their data needs, providing them access to numerous data sources. This makes it easier for enterprises to identify and find the data that they are searching for. Alation Data Catalog also provides other benefits like faster boarding, query re-use, and automated curation of data. It also offers cloud storage services if an enterprise is looking to migrate its business. With its powerful technology, Alation also allows data managers to reference the data and the data users in an organization. 

Ataccama

A lot of PaaS or Platform as a Service apps are flooding the market. In the field of Data Management and Governance, Ataccama is an efficient and economic solution to the data governance needs of an enterprise. Powered by AI-driven automated capabilities Ataccama makes data administration as simple as possible. Ataccama automates a lot of robotic tasks in data governance like automated data classification and data quality. It also analyzes the quality of the data and provides automatic enforcement of security and policy regulations. It provides a convenient and self-driving strategy for data governance using automated tasks and AI-driven features.

Collibra

A data governance tool with Machine Learning capabilities, Collibra is best for enterprises that have a lot of cross-functional teams. Collibra provides a cloud service platform to store the huge amount of data that enterprises generate. Along with the cloud services, it also provides Natural Language Search, Data Stewardship, and automated data operations. With an open and flexible architecture, it provides ease in connecting different data applications. A stand-out feature of Collibra is its ability to create a data lineage diagram to visualize the relationship between data elements, problems in the database, and the flow of data. The Machine Learning feature can be connected to different business glossaries and standards for efficient data governance tasks like classification, analysis, etc.

SAP Master Data Governance

Data governance tools are often cloud-based since they utilize a lot of processing power. SAP Master Data Governance tool is one of the tools that enterprises can have on-site. The tool was developed keeping in mind the key challenges to implementing a data governance tool. It is designed to decrease the risk of leakages, shutdowns, improve the compliance of data stored with upcoming standards, and lower the overall cost of implementing the data governance tool. Some of the features of the SAP Master Data Governance tool include consolidating the data, providing automated replication and syndication of data. It also measures and improves the data quality. 

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Informatica

One of the most tried and true data governance tools, Informatica offers data governance services that are available on the cloud as well as on-premises. The data catalog created by it is done after scanning multiple cloud platforms. The data governance platform provided by Informatica delivers a comprehensive analysis of the data along with automated data lineage tracking. The automated data lineage tracking keeps a record of all the data migrations that take place from high-level systems views down to the granular column-level lineage.

It also provides an analysis of the impact such data migration has. Informatica ensures data is compliant with regulations by breaking down the data silos and bringing data to a common ground between IT, security, and business teams.

OvalEdge

A cost-effective option when it comes to data governance tools, OvalEdge provides a data catalog with an agile architecture. The catalog’s architecture can be modified to suit the different business demands of different enterprises. It also relies on user inputs and a set of algorithms to depict all the relationships present in the data. OvalEdge also provides data lineage tracking to identify the movement of data from where it starts to where it ends along with tracking any anomalies that might occur during the process. It provides a business dictionary that can be used to create data definition and quality guidelines. It also provides policy control for the data catalog access.

IBM Data Governance

A trusted data governance tool, and a constant addition to any data governance tools list, the IBM Data Governance can work with both structured and unstructured data. It provides features to locate data entities along with their definitions, attributes, physical location, and applications. Along with that IBM Data Governance also provides cataloging and big data capabilities. By working with both structured and unstructured data IBM Data Governance tool ensures that the data is compliant with all types of regulations. Along with data governance, IBM Data Governance also provides privacy and security features for sensitive data like health data, etc.

These are the top data governance tools of 2022. Using them has completely revolutionized the working of data governance in organizations. 

Parting Note

Data governance tools have been a boon to execute data governance plans. They serve different needs while executing data governance. Choosing amongst the data governance tools list introduces the organization to carefully curate its data governance initiatives. 

In addition to all facilities, data governance tools act as the amplifier for any kind of data governance plan. They make the work easy and help proper storage of data. With this, they also make sure to improvise the data quality and data standardization. 

The best data governance tools for 2022 are Alation Data Catalog, Ataccama, Collibra, SAP Master Data Governance, Informatica, OvalEdge, and IBM Data Governance. 

Common FAQs

1. What are the 3 key elements of good data governance?

The three elements for good and reliable data governance are:

• People
• Process
• Technology

2. What is a data governance model?

A data governance model refers to a model having a framework that provides procedures, processes, and methods of data storage and maintenance.

References

[1] Koltay, T. (2016). Data governance, data literacy and the management of data quality. IFLA journal, 42(4), 303-312.

[2] Al-Ruithe, M. S. (2018). Development and Evaluation of a Holistic Framework and Maturity Assessment Tools for Data Governance in Cloud Computing Environments (Doctoral dissertation, Staffordshire University).