Angsuman Dutta
CTO, FirstEigen
Alation + DataBuck: Advanced Data Quality With Integrated Data Governance
Have you heard about the new industry initiative to improve data quality? It’s called the Alation Data Quality Initiative, and it aims to bring together the best features of the industry’s biggest players. The goal is to let customers integrate the best data quality tools from multiple companies in a straightforward and easy-to-use fashion – with First Eigen’s DataBuck as a key participant.
Quick Takeaways
- The Alation Open Data Quality Initiative unites data quality and management solutions from key industry players.
- Customers can use the Open Data Quality Framework and API to easily integrate different data tools into a unified workflow.
- Key data from all participating partners is displayed in a single dashboard in the Alation Data Catalog.
- First Eigen is proud to include its DataBuck data quality management solution in the Alation Data Quality Initiative.
What is the Alation Data Quality Initiative?
The Alation Open Data Quality Initiative is a framework that opens the Alation Data Catalog to participating players in the data management industry. It enables data management solutions from different companies to work together and share data, allowing customers to integrate multiple data quality solutions in one interface.
With the Open Data Quality Initiative, customers are no longer locked into a single data management ecosystem. Customers have the flexibility and freedom to select the best data quality and observability tools for their individual needs.
What Does the Data Quality Initiative Do?
The initiative aims to increase data governance and access to analytics for companies that consume large amounts of data. Since data quality is a priority for these organizations, they need to be able to integrate data tools from various companies that might not otherwise work well together.
It makes it easier for companies to choose the data quality and management tools that work best for them and not worry about integration issues. It provides a new level of interoperability and openness in the data quality space.
Eliminate Data Silos for a Unified Source of Truth
Data silos can hinder effective communication and decision-making within an organization. To break down these barriers and establish a centralized hub of information, consider the following strategies:
Integrate Diverse Systems: Utilize data integration platforms like Snowflake or Talend. These tools combine various systems, ensuring seamless data flow between departments and consolidating information into a single, accessible repository.
Implement Data Governance Practices: Establish robust governance frameworks through solutions such as Informatica or Collibra. This ensures data accuracy, consistency, and accessibility, which is essential for maintaining a trustworthy source of truth.
Encourage Cross-Departmental Collaboration: Foster an organizational culture that promotes sharing and transparency. Use collaboration tools like Slack or Microsoft Teams to maintain open lines of communication and facilitate the exchange of information.
Adopt a Unified Data Management Platform: Consider deploying a comprehensive data management system like SAP Data Intelligence or IBM Cloud Pak for Data. These platforms provide advanced analytics, governance, and integration capabilities, which are crucial for managing and utilizing data effectively across the organization.
By adopting these strategies, organizations can dismantle data silos and establish a reliable, single source of truth that empowers informed decision-making and boosts operational efficiency.
Why is the Alation Data Quality Initiative Necessary?
Poor quality data plagues companies of all sizes. As the old saying goes, “garbage in, garbage out,” which makes poor quality problematic for organizations that rely on it for operations and decision-making.
Companies have long struggled with trying to ensure they’re using the highest quality data. This effort often involves a grab-bag of data management, governance, and quality solutions from multiple vendors. Companies faced not only the problem of identifying and cleaning bad data but also getting all those different data tools to work together.
The data quality industry is filled with numerous innovative, often-specific solutions, with new technologies and approaches developed regularly. One vendor might make an advance in one area of data management, while another makes a different breakthrough in data governance, both equally valid and valuable. It’s also common for different departments within a company to seek different types of data management and quality tools based on their specific needs. It’s not a one-size-fits-all world.
So, to employ the best, most current, and most appropriate technologies, a company might have to use solutions from multiple vendors. Before the Data Quality Initiative, however, there was no guarantee that an organization could integrate these disparate tools into a single solution. The Open Data Quality Initiative changes that.
Customers want high-quality data that they can trust without the hassle of trying to integrate different solutions. By enabling participating solutions to share data among themselves, the Open Data Quality Initiative guarantees improved interoperability and observability. Customers no longer need to constantly switch between tools, as all participating tools integrate into a single data management chain. It turns a plethora of data management technologies into a single, easy-to-manage solution.
Enhance Alation Data Governance: Ensure 99% Data Quality with DataBuck
What Does the Data Quality Initiative Include?
Partners in the Open Data Quality Initiative receive access to the Open Data Quality Framework (ODQF), which includes a software development kit (SDK), open data quality API, and a developer portal that includes extensive documentation and educational tutorials that describe best practices for integration.
These materials help participating companies provide customers with easy access to everything they need to employ tools from multiple vendors. This includes access to data quality rules, metrics, and notifications, all integrated into the Alation Data Catalog interface.
When a tool is integrated via the Data Quality Initiative, a new Data Quality tab appears in the Alation Data Catalog. This tab provides essential functionality for storing the tool’s data quality description, rules, and status information. Partners can use this tab to display data endorsement flags, warnings, and other notifications to users. In addition, partners can configure alerts within Alation to immediately notify users of data quality issues.
Who is Alation – and What Companies Are Part of the Data Quality Initiative?
Alation, the company, is a leader in enterprise data intelligence solutions. The company’s popular products include the Alation Data Catalog, Alation Data Governance App, and Alation Cloud Service. The company boasts more than 450 enterprise customers worldwide, serving more than 300,000 users. Alation’s products have, to date, indexed more than 355 million data objects.
Companies participating in the Open Data Quality Initiative include other leaders in the data quality and observability space, including:
- Acceldata
- Anomalo
- Bigeye
- Capgemini
- Experian
- First Eigen
- Fivetran
- Lightup
- Soda
First Eigen Joins Forces With Alation in the Open Data Quality Initiative
First Eigen has joined forces with Alation, including its DataBuck solution in the Open Data Quality Initiative. DataBuck’s ability to automate data quality monitoring and validation makes it an ideal component for large-scale data monitoring solutions. Alation’s open integration enables businesses to quickly execute automated data quality monitoring, provide more reliable data analysis, and make more informed business decisions – all from Alation’s data quality monitoring dashboard.
DataBuck’s 11-vector fingerprint analysis helps to determine the accuracy, validity, and completeness of an organization’s data. All data monitored with DataBuck receives a detailed Data Trust Score (DTS), which is integrated with data from other Open Initiative tools. Users are then alerted to any questionable data entering the data pipeline, alongside data from other Alation Data Quality partners.
Achieve Unmatched Data Quality in Alation Data Governance
How Can Teams Integrate Trusted Data With Their Daily Applications?
Teams can seamlessly incorporate reliable data into the everyday tools they rely on with the help of versatile solutions. Here’s how:
Direct Integration with Popular Apps:
Data can be accessed directly within applications such as Excel, Google Sheets, Microsoft Teams, and Slack. This integration allows data to be readily available without switching between platforms, enhancing productivity and efficiency.
Seamless Data Search and Retrieval:
With powerful search functionalities, teams can quickly locate and retrieve the data they need, streamlining workflow and reducing time spent on data management.
Collaborative Sharing and Actions:
Data sharing features empower team members to collaborate effectively, making it easier to discuss insights and act on data-driven decisions within their preferred communication and collaboration tools.
Maintain Data Trust and Security:
These integrations ensure that data integrity is maintained, so teams can rely on accurate and secure data, minimizing risks and enhancing trust in the results.
By leveraging these capabilities, teams can turn data into actionable insights directly within the platforms they use every day, driving efficiency and informed decision-making.
Contact FirstEigen today to learn more about Alation and the Data Quality Initiative.
Check out these articles on Data Trustability, Observability & Data Quality Management-
FAQ
Alation’s Data Governance App is a platform that helps organizations set and follow data policies, making sure data is used correctly across teams. It improves data quality by enforcing rules and offering visibility into who is using the data, where it comes from, and how it’s being applied. This ensures that the data stays accurate, consistent, and reliable over time.
Alation’s Data Catalog helps maintain data quality by organizing and managing metadata, making it easier to find, understand, and trust data across the company. It provides data lineage, showing where the data came from and how it has changed, which helps users spot errors and maintain consistency, ensuring that enterprise data remains accurate and up-to-date.
When choosing data quality management tools, look for features like automated data validation, anomaly detection, and data profiling. These features help ensure the data is correct, complete, and useful. Also, tools that offer real-time monitoring and integration with governance platforms like Alation provide better control over the data's quality throughout its lifecycle.
Yes, Alation can integrate with tools like DataBuck. While Alation focuses on organizing and governing data, DataBuck handles the automated checks for data quality issues. Together, these tools allow organizations to manage data quality and governance more effectively, ensuring data is both well-governed and free from errors.
Data quality solutions focus on identifying and fixing problems within the data, such as inaccuracies or missing information. Data governance tools, like Alation, set the rules and policies for how data should be handled, ensuring that data quality solutions can operate effectively within a controlled environment. Together, they help organizations manage their data from both a quality and governance perspective.
Alation’s Data Catalog is essential for large organizations because it helps manage and organize vast amounts of data in one place. It provides users with the ability to find and understand data quickly, ensuring that everyone across the organization works with accurate and trusted data. This helps maintain high standards of data quality at scale.
Alation plays a key role in managing data quality by offering real-time visibility into how data is being used and ensuring that the data complies with set governance rules. While it doesn’t perform quality checks itself, it ensures that data quality tools, like DataBuck, operate in a well-governed environment, keeping data clean and reliable.
Discover How Fortune 500 Companies Use DataBuck to Cut Data Validation Costs by 50%
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