METADATA MANAGEMENT

METADATA MANAGEMENT, Published by:

Gija Saji George, Masters in Computer Management

WHAT IS METADATA?

The data that provides an information about other data. In other words, we can say it “data about data”.

Let’s understand the metadata with some of the examples given below:

1. If you have a book, then the book is the data. The metadata would be the Author, the title, the publisher, the date of publication etc.
2. In a camera, the camera is the data. Then, the metadata would be the camera maker, the camera model etc.

Why do we need Metadata Management?

Without a robust metadata management strategy, the organizations are likely to make business decisions based on incorrect data.

Metadata Management is critical for ensuring the data quality. Then, it is essentially responsible for ensuring consistency and accuracy of the data across various reporting system.

METADATA MANAGEMENT

What are the types of Metadata?

Structural Metadata:

Structural Metadata refers to how data is formatted and assembled. You can just think of it like a table of contents in a book.

Descriptive Metadata:

Descriptive Metadata is how data is identified. This includes the things such as title, date or Keywords. An example of descriptive metadata would be if an audio file was stored in a computer. Then, at the run time of the audio file would be the descriptive metadata.

Administrative Metadata:

Administrative Metadata give the important instructions about a file. It also informs what type of restrictions are to be placed on the file such as who can access it.

From the below chart, we shall get to know about metadata. Then we will get the more informations of the data.

Metadata is the Who, What, Where, Why, When and How of the data.

Who	What	Where	Why	When	How
Who created this data?	What is the business definition of this data?	Where is this data stored?	Why are we storing this data?	When was this data created?	How is this data formatted (Character, Numeric etc.?
Who is the steward of this data?	What are the business rules for this data?	Where did this data come from?		When was it last updated?	How many database or data sources store this data?
Who is using this data?	What is the security level or the Privacy level of this data?	Where is this data used and shared?		When does it need to be deleted?	How long should it be stored?
Who owns this data?	What is the abbreviation or acronym for this data?	Where is the backup for this data?
Who is auditing this data?	What are the technical naming standards for the data?	Are there reginal privacy or security policies that regulate This data?
	What is its usage and purpose?

https://www.linkedin.com/jobs/metadata-jobs?position=1&pageNum=0

Data Vs Metadata

Here, we can see how data versus metadata?

Let's see the difference between data and metadata from the below chart.

Metadata	Customer ID	First Name	Last Name	City
Data	00001	Smith	Jones	Tucson
Data	00002	Ram	Kumar	Mumbai
Data	00003	Shawn	Nicolas	New York

In above chart

customer id, first name, last name, city.

Metadata

is the Who, What, Where, Why, When and How of the data.

Author Details: Gija Saji George,
Masters in Computer Management