What is data governance?
Data governance helps organizations manage their data (internal and external) and ensure its relevance, integrity, availability, security and usability. It consists of policies, processes and standards to collect, manage and store data in repositories such as data lakes and warehouses. (Oh dear, sounds like a lot 😓. Fret not, we got you. 👍)
Think of human resources and how it protects the human assets of an organization. It also helps employees grow, thrive and do their lives' best work. Data governance does the same for data.
What does data governance involve?
Data governance ensures that data teams within an organization:
- Know where the data they need is stored 💾
- Understand the sources, origins and purpose of data 💻
- Have access to data as and when needed 🔐
Data governance covers all the policies concerning an organization’s data. It helps organizations manage their data and set up a successful data strategy.
The core elements of a data governance framework include establishing a data governance policy, setting up processes and defining data governance roles.
Why is data governance important?
Data governance guarantees that data is accessible across an organization, preventing data silos. As a result, the data stored is accurate, consistent and secure. When data is stored and managed properly, it’s protected from internal as well as external threats.
Data governance also ensures compliance with data privacy laws and regulations such as Sarbanes-Oxley Act, The Basel Accords (Basel I, Basel II, Basel III), HIPAA and GDPR that govern data.
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