Data governance tools – a detailed guide

What are the best data governance tools available in the market?

If you want quick answer on the best data governance tools to select, here are some: Alation, Collibra, SAP, Talend, and Atlan. These are some well-known data governance tools. But there is more too. Sharing the detailed information on every data governance tool, its benefits, features, pros, and who should go for it.

1. Alation

Alation has a bunch of data management products, which includes data governance too, combining governance, cataloguing, and collaboration together.

Suitable for: organizations that need to establish firm governance, while also need collaboration capabilities.

Features:

• Data discovery and match driven by AI

• Collaboration tools that connect stewards and analysts

• Policy management and governance features

Benefits:

• Easy to set up and scale governance measures

• Simplified interface

• Robust metadata management

Capterra ratings: 4.4

2. Collibra

Collibra is one of the best data governance tools with data cataloguing, governance, privacy, and compliance components.

Suitable for: Enterprises with utmost regulatory and compliance priorities along with governance management.

Features:

• Connects with multiple BI and data tools.

• Can automate data lineage and other workflows too.

• Impact analysis to measure the consequences of data changes across the organization.

Benefits:

• Excellent integration capabilities

• Growing community with lots of users. Easy to get needed support.

G2 reviews: 4.2

3. SAP master data governance

Organizations that are already in SAP ecosystem could use SAP master data governance to establish compliance and governance within and across SAP systems.

Suitable for: Organizations that have already invested heavily in SAP infrastructure.

Features:

• Integrates with pretty much every SAP solution including SAP S/4HANA.

• Pre-built data models for all domains.

• Data validations and approval driven through workflows.

Benefits:

• Easy to use for existing SAP users.

• Can manage even complex workflows.

• Helps with data quality management.

G2 review: 4.4

4. erwin data intelligence

erwin data intelligence tool is from Quest, which combines data cataloging, governance, literacy, and quality together in one tool.

Suitable for: Organizations with diverse data tools and assets needing a unified and transparent view of data assets.

Features:

• Automated metadata management

• Tools for stewardship and business glossary

• Data lineage and its visualization capabilities

Benefits:

• Has superior data lineage capabilities

• Smooth and familiar interface.

5. Talend

Talend by Qlik offers a simplified data governance management platform with data lineage, cataloging, preparation, and inventory components.

Suitable for: businesses looking for open-source solutions

Features:

• Data quality and data profiling features

• Lineage tracking is there along with metadata management

• Integration and transformation capabilities

Benefits:

• Support from a well-grown community

• Easy to set up and deploy

• Scalable architecture

G2 reviews: 4.2

6. Atlan

Atlan is one of the modern data governance solutions that enables data discovery, governance, and literacy with the help of active metadata management.

Suitable for: companies that need agile governance solutions and enhanced collaboration among teams

Features:

• Role-based access control for enhanced security and data protection.

• Connects well with data tools like Tableau, Snowflake, etc.

• Other features like impact analysis, lineage tracking are there.

Benefits:

• Best collaborative features and easy to use interface.

• Deployment and onboarding is quick and needs fewer resources.

G2 reviews: 4.5

7. Precisely: Data360 Govern

Precisely offers various data tools one of which is data governance. This tool, Data360 Govern helps with managing data quality, metadata, governance, and accuracy, which comes as a part of data integrity suite of Precisely.

Suitable for: This tool is great for organizations who prioritize accuracy and compliance management.

Features:

• Metadata harvesting, data cataloguing, and lineage – all in one place.

• Has good integration capabilities with other data tools.

• Comes with policy and workflow management.

Benefits:

• Covers 360-degree aspects of governance.

• Scalable for enterprise needs.

• Not yet rated on G2.

8. Apache Atlas

Apache Atlas is an open-source governance and metadata management platform. Designed exclusively for Hadoop systems, it provides governance framework and helps with metadata tagging, data classification, centralized auditing, and more.

Suitable for: Organizations who are already using Hadoop systems and are looking for a data governance solution.

Features:

• Metadata defining (through type and entity) and storage.

• Automated metadata classification and intuitive search capabilities.

• Integrates with other data governance tools and Hadoop ecosystem.

Benefits:

• Open-source and extensible.

• Active community support.

G2 reviews: 4.6

9. Ataccama ONE

Ataccama ONE is an all-in-one data management platform with robust data governance, compliance, and quality management capabilities.

Features:

• Data cataloguing and governance in one place.

• Anomaly detection powered by AI.

• Automated data profiling and cleansing.

Benefits:

• Data quality tools and features to maintain accuracy, consistency, and completeness.

• Scales with your company data architecture.

• Simple and user-friendly interface.

G2 reviews: 4.2

Things to consider while selecting data governance tools for your business

Cost effectiveness

Data governance tool cost cannot be considered like a monthly spend. It’s more than that – the enabler of organizational governance, trust in data, and compliance check, whose spending couldn’t be justified with simple ROIs.

At the same time, selecting a cost-effective tool is also important, where requirements must align with affordable plans. Hence, check beyond licensing and consider time it saves through automation, quality levels it promises, or auditing features it comes with.

Here's what you need to check while considering data governance tool costs.

• Whether it’s pay-as-you-go, enterprise license, or open-source model.

• Total cost of ownership, which includes licensing, deployment, maintenance, and support.

Role of AI and machine learning

The meaningful addition of AI and ML makes all the difference in data governance tool, automating redundant tasks. If you need AI-powered tools, check if the following use cases are present.

• Auto-tagging and classification of data assets

• AI-powered data lineage

• Policy suggestions, anomaly detection, and other workflow automation.

Such features can come in handy when you are scaling data architecture.

A good tip to avoid expensive tools in the name of AI would be to select the ones where AI simplifies things, not adding complexity.

Ease of use

A governance tool may be used by many – data stewards, analysts, compliance teams, business heads, etc. Choosing a user-friendly tool minimizes confusion and chaos and allows everyone to explore.

• Does it have role-based workflows?

• Does it have product tour for every user?

• How steep is its learning curve according to other users?

• How useful are the documentation and resources?

These are some questions you can ask while making data governance tools comparison.

Integration

While choosing a data governance tool, you should see if it fits into your data architecture and integrates with every other tool: storage, analytics, cloud platforms, etc. A tool with plug-and-play integration capabilities would be a better option, as it promises faster rollouts and smooth operations.

Check if the data governance tool has:

• Custom integrations

• API calls

• Out-of-the-box connectors

• Metadata harvesting

Security and compliance

Data governance and data security and protection go hand in hand. Hence, choose a tool that offers:

• Strong compliance features like HIPAA, GDPR, SOC2 readiness, etc

• Data masking and RBAC

• Incident tracking

• Audit trail support

• Vendor support

Select a tool that can support your regulatory and risk management requirements, meeting both technical and legal standards.

How scalable it is

Data governance tools are life long investments; selecting something that grows with your data is the best option. Before finalizing the tool, ask these questions:

• Does it offer multi-tenant support?

• Is it a cloud-native platform, which are more scalable than the rest?

• Can it flexibly support both federated and centralized data governance goals?

All of this is crucial as data governance can’t be considered as a onetime project. Data volume might grow, user roles might get nuanced, regulations could become complex. Your tool must be able to support all this.

Final thoughts

Someone somewhere said, “Without data governance, dashboards are just colorful lies.” Probably a data steward or a BI expert. But they are right. Data governance plays a role so instrumental, keeping the data secure, accurate, and consistent, without which even advanced AI and analytics can crumble down like a house of cards. This is where data governance tools take up the load, making everyday data accessible for your business. Talk to one of our solution architects who can help you make this important decision of selecting a data governance solution or platform for your business, evaluating your data infrastructure.