Azure Data Catalog in Preview

Azure Data Catalog is a centralized, hosted registry of enterprise data sources designed to simplify the sharing of approved data sources for business intelligence and application purposes. The service can help organizations share information about important data sources with users in a more controlled manner and with less maintenance than current solutions. Providing vetted data sources can also help reduce the number of reports and analysis performed against invalid or out-of-date data. However, the service exposes significant information about the data sources, and the list of compatible data source types is currently limited.

Sharing Enterprise Data

Many IT departments struggle to meet user demands for more reports and access to business data. Consequently, users tend to solve their own requirements by accessing whatever data sources they can find or re-creating data from multiple sources. The result is often reports and analysis performed on incorrect, out-of-date, or unapproved data. A typical solution for some organizations is to create a data source catalog where approved data sources are registered and documented, in a product such as SQL Server Master Data Services. However, these catalogs are usually maintained and documented by IT departments for IT purposes with limited access available to business users.