One-Stop Shop for Data Governance: Why Collibra is a Game-Changer

Since organizations increasingly rely on data-driven insights and face stringent data regulations, Data Governance has become indispensable. Last year, we wrote a blog on Why Collibra is the best data governance tool, and since then the complexity and maturity of Data Governance has heavily evolved. The landscape of Data Governance tools has ever been expanding along with it, with tools offering all different kinds of solutions. At Datashift, we've witnessed firsthand how Collibra can transform Data Governance practices and keeps pace with evolving market demands. In this article, we discuss why having all your Data Governance capabilities under one roof in Collibra is a game-changer for your organization's data strategy.

Bridge the gap between silo’s in your organization

A key part of effective Data Governance is having clear ownership of your data. Centralizing Data Governance in Collibra streamlines the assignment and management of not only data owners, but – as opposed to most other tools – also includes risk owners, AI model owners,… It provides a single platform where roles and responsibilities can be clearly defined, documented, and easily updated. It facilitates communication and collaboration between owners, their stewards, and users, as all interactions can be tracked and managed within the same system via workflows and comments. The traceability diagram below clearly shows how Collibra is connecting the traditional silo’s of the Business Glossary, Logical Data Dictionary and the Physical Data Dictionary:

Connect people and data

Moreover, with the current market trend towards Data Product thinking, a lot of organisations are investigating marketplace platforms where consumers can shop for data. Collibra offers a Data Marketplace module, which can complement your already existing data catalog. Having a Data Marketplace as part of the broader Data Governance tool offers a seamless integration between data discovery, access, and governance. Users can find, understand, and request access to data all within the same platform. This integration ensures that governance policies are automatically applied to data sharing and usage, but also leverages everything that is already documented for Data Governance purposes. It can also provide a feedback loop where the usage patterns observed in the Data Marketplace can drive Data Governance decisions, such as which datasets might need stricter controls or which are underutilized and might benefit from broader access.

Join information from different sources

Effective Data Governance often requires interaction with various data sources, business intelligence tools, ETL systems, and other data management platforms. By centralizing connections, the data catalog serves as a single source of truth for all data-related activities. This not only eliminates the need for multiple integration points – significantly reducing IT overhead and potential inconsistencies – but also enable users to consult the source system, quality metrics or even reports of a certain data asset without leaving the familiar interface. This accelerates data discovery and enhances productivity across teams. Furthermore, organizations can more clearly track the lineage of data flows and transformations more clearly. The platform offers numerous native connectors to common data sources, business intelligence tools, and other enterprise systems. These integrations allow for automated metadata harvesting, synchronization of data quality metrics, and seamless incorporation of Collibra's governance capabilities into existing data workflows. Furthermore, Collibra provides APIs and software development kits that enable custom integrations, allowing organizations to connect Collibra with proprietary or specialized systems.

Customise to fit your specific needs

Collibra contains a great set of ready to use modules and features, as well as extensive customisation options. Out-of-the-box, Collibra provides pre-configured Data Governance asset types and workflows that align with the best practices. This allows organizations to quickly implement their core Data Governance processes. However, Collibra's true strength lies in its flexibility. The platform's Workflow Designer is a great example of this adaptability. It allows users to create custom, complex workflows that can automate and standardize various Data Governance processes. For more detail, you can read this blog we wrote on it here. Additionally, Collibra allows for extensive customization of its data model, enabling organizations to tailor the platform to their unique data landscape and governance requirements. This balance of out-of-the-box functionality and customization capabilities ensures that Collibra can provide immediate value while also growing and adapting to an organization's evolving needs.

Guard your data quality

Instead of using integrations and complex processes to publish Data Quality results from another tool, Collibra offers clients a Data Quality and Observability module. The integration of data quality monitoring within a data catalog offers numerous benefits: data stewards can immediately link quality issues to specific data assets, providing crucial context for remediation efforts and users receive real-time insight into the quality of data they're considering, empowering them to make informed decisions about data usage. Furthermore, the module's observability features enable real-time monitoring of data pipelines, quickly detecting anomalies or deviations from expected patterns. It enables a more holistic approach to quality improvement by combining the Data Intelligence Platform with data quality capabilities.

Keep AI in check

As required by the recent EU AI Act, it is crucial to maintain transparency and explainability in AI decisions. This is crucial for maintaining transparency and explainability in AI decision-making processes, as required by the recent EU AI Act. Collibra can also assist in documenting the training data used for AI models, helping to identify potential biases and ensure compliance with AI ethics guidelines. As AI governance becomes increasingly important, Collibra's integrated approach allows organizations to incorporate AI-specific governance rules and workflows into their broader Data Governance framework. For example, a big pain point is the ‘distance’ between Artificial Intelligence and Data Ownership. This holistic view helps ensure that AI systems are developed and deployed in a manner that is consistent with an organization's overall Data Governance policies and regulatory requirements, while incorporating Data Quality and explainability.

Mitigate your risks

Proper Data Governance ensures compliance regulations such as GDPR, CSRD and the recent EU AI act. Collibra provides a more comprehensive view of data-related risks, by combining risk assessment capabilities with other governance features. Risk assessments can directly incorporate information about data quality, ownership, usage patterns, and compliance requirements - all within the same platform. This integration allows for more accurate and nuanced risk evaluations. For example, the impact of a potential data breach can be more precisely estimated when the system has integrated information about the data’s sensitivity, where it is used, and interconnections with other datasets.

Conclusion

By consolidating these capabilities in a single platform, Collibra enables a more coherent, efficient, and effective approach to Data Governance. It reduces the complexity and potential inconsistencies that can arise from using multiple disparate tools, while providing a more comprehensive and interconnected view of an organization's data landscape. Moreover, Collibra is ever improving their platform to better fit their customers’ needs and follow the continuously evolving market

In the book "Outliers", Malcom Gladwell identified that in order to become a world class expert in a field, you need to put in 10.000 hours of practice. Within Datashift, we have over 120.000 hours of experience with Collibra. Got a question? Don't hesitate to reach out to talk to a Collibra specialist!