Metadata is what describes your data. It’s the label on your containers that tells you which one contains sugar or salt. It's the card that the valet gives you when you park your vehicle at the shopping mall. In the world of tech, it includes information such as the author of a file, file size, time of creation, last updated, etc., (basic metadata elements). Most of this data has remained passive for the longest time (just storing data in a static catalog), leaving the wealth of data insights it can generate unexplored.

Until now.

Companies are moving towards a new generation of metadata known as active metadata. Active metadata allows companies to make improved and efficient data-driven decisions by providing intelligible business insights. For these reasons, G2 announces its Active Metadata Management category, which will help inform buyers about this space and provide a platform for sellers to develop in the category.

Active metadata management is the next phase of data catalogs

There is a clear paradigm shift when it comes to the data ecosystem. Companies are now focused on analyzing and managing data, from just organizing and storing which was the primary function of data catalogs. 

Data catalogs may be suffering because of a lack of automation and formatting issues, but the key reason is the inability to cope with unstructured data. We live in an era of unstructured data, which includes video, audio files, social media posts, texts, etc., and data catalogs cannot keep up with the scalability and flexibility needed to support it in this age of the internet. Although data catalogs have been around for ages, the time has come for them to evolve. So what's the next phase? It is the inception of active metadata management.  

G2 houses the Machine Learning Data Catalog (MLDC) category, which has seen a slowdown in traffic. Traffic to the category slowed in 2021 and remains low for the first half of 2022 as well.

Let's look at other data categories on G2, such as Data Quality and Data Exchange. We see moderate to high growth in category traffic, but why is MLDC faltering behind? While MLDC has helped companies immensely with data discovery, businesses are now looking for solutions that provide clarity to the location and data behind data to prevent delays, errors, and a waste of valuable resources. To ensure companies make the most of their MLDC offerings and provide useful business insights, we can utilize the third phase of machine learning data catalogs—active metadata management.

Breaking down active data management—the library example

What better example than the library to explain the nitty-gritty of active metadata management. Suppose you want to borrow a book, so you type its title in the computer system, giving you the rack and the shelf details to collect since it has been cataloged and sorted already. Then you collect the book.

Now, what if the computer you logged on to did not just give you the book's location? What if it also gave you similar titles you might be interested in, their location, what people around you are reading, author recommendations, how long you would need to read the book, and other relevant suggestions and insights? Sounds too good to be true? Not anymore! This is where active metadata management comes in. 

Active metadata brings reasoning to all the data. It helps users make full use of and derive value from their metadata. Active metadata management will change how data pipelines are built and help companies manage and improve their data lineage. Once companies understand their data lineage—the different data sources that exist, where their data gets transformed and is finally used, and most importantly, all its dependencies along the way, they will see the true value of data.

What do buyers need to keep in mind about active metadata management software?

There are a few bare minimum requirements you should be looking for when choosing active metadata management software for your organization. The software must:

• Provide actionable insights with the core being active metadata
• Develop a knowledge graph
• Integrate with API connectors for collaboration
• Focus on personalizing active metadata needs based on the data user

What’s next? 

There has been a massive influx of structured and unstructured data, especially with the dawn of the internet. Companies have struggled to manage this data and use it judiciously to make rational decisions. With the introduction of active metadata management, companies will not just know where their data lives but can build an action-oriented, reliable system that drives insightful decisions. The data world has seen data fabric, DataOps, data mesh, and several other technologies coming together to focus on data. Active metadata management promises to be the DNA of this movement by helping users find and understand their data.