Data Catalog

A data catalog is a searchable, organized inventory of an organization's data assets — databases, tables, dashboards, pipelines, APIs, and machine-learning models — enriched with metadata that describes what each asset contains, where it came from, who owns it, and how trustworthy it is.

A modern catalog goes beyond a static registry. It automatically ingests metadata from source systems, links technical assets to business glossary terms, records ownership and stewardship, surfaces lineage and quality signals, and lets users discover data and request access through a governed workflow.

For a Saudi Data Management Office, the catalog is usually the first concrete deliverable of a governance program. The NDMO framework expects entities to maintain a complete inventory of their data assets with assigned ownership and classification — requirements that become practically impossible to satisfy with spreadsheets once an organization passes a few hundred tables. The catalog also operationalizes PDPL duties: knowing where personal data resides is a precondition for honoring data subject rights and responding to SDAIA inquiries. In short, the catalog turns "we think we know what data we have" into a documented, auditable answer.