Data Management

What is Data Management?

Data Management encompasses all practices and processes for collecting, storing, organizing, and valorizing data throughout its lifecycle. It covers data definition, documentation, accessibility, and exploitation.

What is the difference between MDM and a data catalog?

MDM (Master Data Management) manages the organization's key reference data (customers, products, suppliers) to ensure uniqueness and consistency across systems. A data catalog is an inventory of available data assets with their metadata, lineage, and documentation. The two are complementary.

What is Data Mesh?

Data Mesh is an organizational and architectural approach that decentralizes data responsibility: each business domain becomes the owner of its data and exposes it as data products consumable by other domains. It rests on four principles: domain ownership, data as a product, self-service infrastructure, and federated governance.

What is a Data Contract?

A Data Contract is a formal agreement between dataset producers and consumers: it specifies the schema, semantics, update frequency, SLAs, and quality rules. It reduces silent breakages between teams and enables automated compliance testing.

Which deck should I start with?

Start with Data Management (Fundamentals) then Data Lifecycle Management for the foundations. Then Metadata, Catalogs & Lineage, MDM, Data Products & Contracts, and finally Data Mesh for a complete picture.