The importance of data profiling and optimization

Data profiling is the process of looking closely at data in order to collect statistics and informative summaries about said data. 

Ultimately, It can work to discover underlying issues to monitor and improve overall data quality.

Investing in data profiling helps to ensure that data governance processes are working properly and that bad data is kept out. Michele Goetz, VP principal analyst at Forrester, explained that profiling your data is what really helps to build trust in that data. “Is it the right data? Is the data relevant? Is it in good condition? You really want to be sure that if you are going to consume that data and use it for information or analytics, that it is going to give you results that you can trust and that you are going to get value from,” she said. 

According to Goetz, the market for data profiling tools is continuously growing. “There are specific data profiling and lineage tools, there are data management tools and cataloging tools that have their own profiling and lineage analysis, there’s new tools on the market called data observability tools… so it’s really a core capability,” she said. 

She went on to say that investing in a data profiling tool is as essential for an organization as knowing what a store is selling before going into it as a consumer. Goetz explained that these tools are the best way to really get to know and understand all of the data that flows through an organization, especially if there is a massive amount of it. 

Having that deep understanding of the data helps organizations to optimize it. Whether that looks like putting the data into the appropriate format, the optimization of the way data is ingested, or the optimization of the technical aspects of the data. 

“Continuous optimization is the ability to profile and observe the data, either at rest or in motion, to see what is going on with the life cycle of that data and then to have the ability to intervene so that you can optimize it and make it continuously valuable for the business,” Goetz said. 

Profiling and optimizing data has become an essential aspect of an organization’s success and Melissa Data Profiler can help. 

With this tool, users can analyze their data prior to it being merged into a warehouse as well as help to be sure that data quality stays consistent once it’s there. 

Melissa Data Profiler enables organizations to take control of their data by providing the necessary information for users to develop informed strategies on how best to manage and employ their data.

Key benefits of Melissa Data Profiler include: 

• The ability to enhance data governance and data warehousing efforts in order to drive better business intelligence and analytics 
• The ability to create a metadata repository that helps build strategic data marts to solve ambiguities 
• Enforcing business rules on incoming records so the user can maintain data standardization, collect data, and format it 
• Showcasing ongoing data quality improvements to shareholders to help show management that Data Quality Budget and Governance initiatives are necessities

The post The importance of data profiling and optimization appeared first on SD Times.

from SD Times https://ift.tt/kyMKY4d