IBM survey highlights risk of poor meta-data management | | 2008-07-07 | | Firms are facing revenue losses and fines as a result of not keeping track of their information according to the 2008 Metadata Market Survey conducted by IBM and Gavilan Research Associates.
The survey, conducted among more than 300 data management professionals from leading Global 5000 companies throughout the US, Canada and other countries, indicated that businesses need to better inventory their information to help reduce risk and derive more value from their business information.
Metadata (literally information about information) describes data by relating key business and technical information to it, making it possible to index, govern and use valuable corporate information. Due to growing information management challenges associated with risk, information overload, and regulations, companies are increasingly making it a priority to better understand how their data is accessed or altered, and improve their understanding of the accuracy and completeness of information.
Of the Sixty-seven percent of respondents who said that data governance and data stewardship issues were among the top three metadata-related issues or projects they were struggling with, 45 percent do not yet have a data governance council or data governance projects underway.
Another eighty percent said they are wrestling with other information-related issues such as documenting business metadata and 64 percent are documenting metadata for data warehouses, data marts and analytical applications.
In a business environment, metadata can add context to information that allows it to be better understood, used, and tracked throughout an organization. Spreadsheets, word processing documents, databases and software applications can be enhanced by associating critical metadata such as information about business definitions and ownership, processing rules for moving data, and tracing how information moves through the enterprise affecting applications.
IBM is using the survey to promote its InfoSphere meta-data management system.
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