Transformative Data Governance with Microsoft Purview

Author: Rafi Ghafoor

In today’s increasingly digital world, data has become the lifeblood for many organizations. Now, data can originate and reside outside of the traditional borders of business.

The recent trend towards hybrid work has accelerated this dynamic and often leads to data that is stored in a range of on-premise, multi-cloud, and SaaS applications. Add in the patchwork of rapidly evolving data regulations and it’s easy to see the need for making data governance a central part of your data strategy, in order to deliver a unified view of your organization’s data and empower citizen data workers.

Why is data governance needed?

Gartner defines Data Governance as “the specification of decision rights and an accountability framework to ensure appropriate behavior in the valuation, creation, storage, use, archiving and deletion of information”.

RevGen extends this definition by also realizing the importance of data governance to making high quality and high value data easily understandable and accessible throughout the organization to impact critical business moments. When implemented effectively, data governance can be a transformative capability, enabling organizations to effectively streamline operations, drive revenues, meet obligations, and improve customer experiences through data.

Effective data governance also helps ensure high-quality data analytics by minimizing errors and maintaining the integrity of your organizational data. This naturally leads to better decision-making and facilitates compliance with increasingly restrictive data privacy laws, such as General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

[Read More: The 5 Data Governance Questions Every Organization Needs to Answer]

Data Governance with Microsoft Purview:

RevGen’s approach to data governance is to align people, process, and technology to maximize and protect the value of organizational data assets. Microsoft Purview does just that by bringing together Azure Purview and a suite of Microsoft 365 compliance solutions.

In this article, we will focus on the components and benefits of the unified data governance solutions contained in Microsoft Purview which help organizations govern, protect, manage the entire data estate (on-premises, multi-cloud, and software as a service (SaaS) data) seamlessly, as well as share this data across the enterprise. In addition, we will share some insights on Microsoft’s recommended Master Data Management solution to compliment Purview.

Microsoft Purview Components:

Microsoft Purview includes five key components that allow you to easily create a holistic, up-to-date map of your data landscape with automated data discovery, sensitive data classification, and end-to-end data lineage while also enabling data consumers to access valuable, trustworthy, and managed data.

Data Map 

Data map provides a unified view of your data assets and their relationships for more effective data governance.

• Automate and manage metadata from hybrid sources
• Classify data using built-in custom classifiers
• Label sensitive data consistently
• Easily integrate all your data catalogs and systems using Apache Atlas APIs

Data Catalog  

This is a glossary with key business and technical search terms that aid in data discovery.

• Understand the origin of your data with interactive data lineage visualization
• Provide data scientists, engineers, and analysts with the data they need for BI, analytics, AI, and machine learning

Data Estate Insights 

These provide insights and visualization into the management of sensitive data across your entire data estate.

• Overview of the assets that have been scanned into the Data Map and view key gaps that can be closed by governance stakeholders
• View and manage key health metrics across your hybrid data estate
• View your whole data estate and its distribution by asset dimensions such as source type, classification, and file size
• Get status updates on how many scans succeeded, failed, or were canceled
• Gain key insights to add or redistribute glossary terms for better search results

Data Policy

Purview’s Data Policy allows for easy provisioning of end user data access and metadata access for DevOps.

• Enable data engineers and owners to provision access to data assets.
• Self-service data access with automated provisioning
• Get support for subscriptions, resource groups, Azure Blob Storage, Azure Data Lake (Gen2), Azure SQL DB, and SQL Server 2022

Data Sharing

Purview provides centrally managed data sharing with internal teams and with external customers or partners.

• Easily share data in place with no data duplication
• Access shared data in near real time
• Get support for Azure Data Lake Storage (ADLS Gen2) and Blob Storage

MDM with Microsoft Purview and Profisee

What is MDM?

No data governance conversation is complete without discussing Master Data Management. Master Data Management (MDM) refers to the technology, tools, and processes used to create, maintain, and ensure master data sets are coordinated across an organization. A defined MDM strategy increases accuracy, consistency, and completeness of your data.

Profisee compliments Microsoft Purview by allowing additional enforcement of standards, merging data, validation, remediation, and the ability to synchronize across systems. When combined with Profisee MDM, the duo forms the foundation for governance and master data management, allowing organizations to maximize the business value of data in Azure.

To be most effective, master data should be merged, validated, and corrected in Profisee by using governance definitions, insights, and expertise that are detailed in Purview (see diagram below). These technologies are complementary and form a more holistic data governance solution to create, manage, and make key standardized data definitions accessible across the organization.

Pairing Microsoft Purview with RevGen’s Holistic Data Governance Framework

Technologies like Microsoft Purview are a critical piece to an effective Data Governance capability, but not the only piece. At RevGen, we help our clients take a holistic view of Data Governance as that is the only way we feel you can truly achieve sustainable success and have this be a transformative capability for your organization.

Our approach starts with your organization’s unique situation and challenges and works collaboratively to take full advantage of the right Data Governance technology.

A Focus on Enabling Your Business:

Our framework emphasizes collaboration and adapting Data Governance to enable your organization versus a singular focus on the control of data.

A Holistic Framework for Sustainable Success:

All these components are important, but that doesn’t mean they all need to be addressed at the same time.

Start Where it Makes Sense for You:

Start with the key foundational elements to realize value quickly for your organization, and incrementally build your maturity.

If you’re interested in evaluating your Data Governance program or exploring your technology options, contact one of our Microsoft Purview and Data Governance experts to schedule a quick chat or visit our Technology Services site to understand what other services we offer.

Rafi Ghafoor is a Sr Business Intelligence/Data Integration Consultant at RevGen with over 15 years of experience.