Product spotlight: confidentiality, knowledge graphs and exploration will bring satisfaction to your data stewards and your data teams in 2021

Product spotlight: confidentiality, knowledge graphs and exploration will bring satisfaction to your data stewards and your data teams in 2021

by | Jan 6, 2021 | Zeenea product

be data fluent

Zeenea offers a new generation data catalog focused on user experience. It enables easy discovery and understanding of data assets with maximum simplicity through automated features and customization of the application. 

Our Product Spotlight articles provide an overview of the latest major updates in Zeenea Data Catalog upon our release.

Discover in this article the objectives of this latest release as well as its latest advances.

  1. Keeping your confidentiality in a optimal way
  2. A new interface for administrators 
  3. Build a Business Lineage with our new custom items feature
  4. It’s kick-off time for our data discovery application 

1. Keeping your confidentiality in a optimal way

 

New configuration of connections and scanners

For this new release, Zeenea offers a new system for configuring connections to our customers’ data storage systems in order to secure their information.
This new approach, in the form of configuration files embedded through scanners, allows companies to no longer store their connection secrets in Zeenea’s SaaS platform and to keep the information related to their systems confidential, which remains local in the IS. 

architecture zeenea

Additional benefits of our approach

In addition to increased security, this new feature, combined with a multi-scanner approach aims to provide:

  • more modularity on Zeenea’s IS integration capabilities. Multiple scanners can now be integrated on the platform at the same time and each scanner has its own list of configured connections
  • better automation of deployments across the entire IS. Configurations are now stored on independent files at scanner level.
  • better visibility of connection status for end users regarding the quality of data in the catalog.

NB: Zeenea Scanner is the process of establishing connections to storage systems in order to extract metadata.

2. A new interface for administrators

We now offer a dedicated space for administrators, allowing a better separation between business actions and management of Zeenea’s platform.

The Administration interface enables:

  • user and contact management (access and address book management)
  • full visibility on the connections currently set up in the catalog and their status
  • monitoring of the operations log on the operation of the platform
  • better visibility of the list of scanners and their status
  • management of the API keys used for communications with scanners and MachineToMachine calls
    Zeenea Administration

    3. Build a Business Lineage with our new custom items feature

    We introduced “Custom items” in our previous product spotlight last June.

    These items allow you to document entirely new concepts, without being limited by the native types provided by default in Zeenea, such as datasets, their fields, data processes, visualizations, or business terms in your glossary.

    In short, they offer greater flexibility to data management teams when building documentation to model abstract and complementary notions of the metadata structurally offered by Zeenea. 

    Each new item type can then be used on each metamodel to create relationships with the set of item types managed in Zeenea and thus enhance catalog exploration using the concept of a knowledge graph.

    What’s new is the way in which Customized Items can be fed into Zeenea Studio? Today we offer two ways for you to proceed:

    • either automatically, via a dedicated connector, developed according to the nature of the source from which the synchronization is to be performed,
    • or, from today, manually, as can be the Business Terms of the glossary in Zeenea.

      4. It’s kick-off time for our data discovery application

      Last September, we announced the launch of our new application: Zeenea Explorer. It offers a search and exploration experience separate from the Zeenea Studio application.

      Users can now search through all native items in the data catalog.

      With Zeenea Explorer, our customers can now provide their teams with an application dedicated to the search and exploration of native items already filled in Zeenea Studio, using its search engine or a set of filters:

      Datasets:

      These are the most standard elements represented in a catalog. This concept refers to a table in a database or a CSV file.

      Fields :

      The structure of a dataset is described in its schema. This structure contains the enumeration, if known, of Fields, which typically correspond to the columns of a table in a database.

      Visualizations:

      They are reports to which the datasets used to build them are linked.

      Data processes:

      They describe changes made to one/more incoming datasets and which result in one or more outgoing datasets. They materialize relationships between datasets and describe the data lineage.

      Business terms:

      They are the defining elements of one or more company glossary(ies). They provide information about the other items in the catalog to which they are linked and give a business outlook to properties.

       

      UX enhancements to Big Query data profiling

      Data profiling informs users about the statistics related to the fields in the datasets. They allow an extensive viewing of the data by providing characteristics such as: the number of values counted in the field, top values, the average, the minimum, the maximum, the median, the standard deviation, the distribution of the data, etc. 

      Only the number of values counted in the field is a true statistic. The other elements are approximate data calculated from sampling.

      The different graphics proposed:

       

      Progress bar/gauge

      The proportion of missing values in the field relative to the number of values counted is shown as a progress bar. When a field has many missing values, the gauge is proportionally colored in bright orange allowing for an easy to read first visual information.

       

      Horizontal histograms

      These graphs display the 1 to 6 most important values represented in the character string type of fields.  These are the values most represented in the observed sampling and not the entire field.

       

      Vertical histograms

      Vertical histograms show the distribution of data for numeric value type of fields. They therefore indicate the number of values counted by increments on a scale from the minimum to the maximum value.

       

      Box plots

      Box plots summarize statistical information in a simple and readable way and complement the vertical histograms in order to analyze distribution. They highlight the quartiles (first and third), the median, and the ends of the box plots. The latter are calculated by using 1.5 times the interquartile range (the distance between the first and third quartile).

      Graphs representing numerical values have tooltips that allow users to observe more closely the values presented as they hover their cursor over the graph.

      BARC, the consulting firm, states Zeenea is The Adaptive Data Catalog

      BARC, the consulting firm, states Zeenea is The Adaptive Data Catalog

      by | Oct 5, 2020 | News & events, Zeenea product

      bar zeenea data catalog

      Last week, we had the pleasure to read this statement done by BARC in their last briefing research: “Zeenea is the Adaptive Data Catalog”. To understand the significance of this research, let’s explain who BARC is.

      Who is BARC?

      The Business Application Research Center (BARC) is an industry analyst and consulting firm for business software with a focus on Business Intelligence/Analytics, Data Management, Enterprise Content Management (ECM), Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP).

      BARC analysts have been supporting companies in strategy, organization, architecture and software evaluations for more than 20 years.

      An established, continuous program of market research and product comparison studies forms the basis of BARC’s comprehensive knowledge of all the leading software providers and products, best practices and the latest market trends and developments.

      BARC events offer a focused overview of leading software solutions, trendsetting developments and current requirements as well as market developments in the various areas of enterprise applications.
      In short, they want to transform companies – more specifically based in DACH countries – into Digital Leaders!

      What did BARC say about Zeenea Data Catalog?

      The research was written by Timm Grosser, BARC’s Senior Analyst for Data Management. He views Zeenea as a young and growing data catalog software provider on the market.

       Timm Grosser BARC

      He stated:

      “Zeenea is a fairly young product and has already demonstrated quite a lot considering it has just three years of market experience and 50 customers. The company is concentrating on the core of data cataloging, thereby setting itself apart from the competition, which is becoming broader and broader from my point of view. The tool is clearly arranged for me.
      […]
      The roadmap features many ML-based, innovative functions, such as improved similarity detection, pattern recognition and identifying relevant attribute values.
      I think the idea and approaches have succeeded in making the data catalog grow adaptively with the company. I am of the opinion that we do not need another battleship catalog. Instead, it is important to take the company and users on a journey towards a data-centric enterprise. And this journey must be feasible. It requires consideration of the organization, the capabilities within the company, and a flexible, simple structure for catalog content. The idea is there and the first technological precautions have been taken. I’m curious to see what Zeenea will make of it.”

       

      Read researches about Zeenea x BARC

      1. Discover everything about BARC’s research on Zeenea via this link 👉 The Adaptive Data Catalog
      2. Or If you prefer knowing how to choose a data catalog as a Data Leader, please read this other research 👉 The Data Catalog – The “Yellow Pages” for Business-Relevant Data
      Product Spotlight: your data teams will love Zeenea Explorer, our new data discovery app

      Product Spotlight: your data teams will love Zeenea Explorer, our new data discovery app

      by | Aug 28, 2020 | Zeenea product

      While Zeenea Studio facilitates the administration and management (importation, completion, maintenance, etc.) of data for Data Stewards daily, Zeenea’s new application “Explorer” is aimed directly at data teams AKA, the end consumers of data in the enterprise.

      The goal of this new application? To make life easier for data teams by enabling them to quickly and simply search for and discover information from their company’s internal data (see our connectors) or from open data. 

      Through Zeenea Explorer, our application seeks to address in greater detail these data end-users to respond to their daily uses and needs. 

      For this launch, Zeenea is particularly focused on Data Scientists to better address their needs for discovery and understanding (both business, statistical and technical) of enterprise data. 

      The advantages of the Explorer? 

      • A design adapted to research and consultation needs, 
      • Data profiling – the main statistical information represented in graphical form, which are very useful for a synthetic analytical reading,
      • Detail pages that make it easy to read and share knowledge.

      In this first release, discover the first available features for your data consumers: 

      1. A design adapted to research and consultation needs

      A quick search experience adapted to user needs 

      Accessible via the homepage and always present throughout navigation, users can use the search engine at any time to find what they need.

      They are able to consult their previous searches as well as view suggestions based on the most relevant objects in the catalog.

      Easy-to-access filters

      To answer the needs of Data Scientists in the first steps of their discovery phase, the main filters available allow them to quickly target the types of objects they want, their quality as well as their sources before offering them all the available filtering possibilities. 

      On the results page, 4 main filters are directly accessible in order to select:

      • One or more type(s) of objects present in the catalog (datasets, fields, visualizations, treatments)
      • One or more connector(s) (depending on the imported data)
      • The quality of the objects (some objects are declared as being of good quality and can therefore be used with serenity while others require more vigilance)
      • Object recency (the user can choose the period of time that refers to the object’s update date)
      • The other properties set via the Studio and necessary for filtering are then grouped together in a final filter presented in the form of a foldout panel. 
        • In the filter settings, users can enter the desired values for even greater ease. 

      A hierarchy of information developed to meet the information needs at each stage of the investigation

      Directly from the results page, Data Scientists access an advanced view of the catalog’ objects. Specific to their needs, they are able to have a look at the technical metadata as well as the source of the metadata that they are used to (re)working with. They also have access to the business specificities of the data, which was documented by the Data Steward teams. 

      This overview summarizes the essential information about objects such as their logical names, technical names, contacts, metadata source and all the necessary information about the objects. This saves the user from having to browse through each detail page to find the information they are looking for. 

      From this overview, users can perform actions such as searching for a field on a dataset or even search for a dataset from a visualization. 

      In short, the data discovery stage is optimized to allow Data Scientists (and more broadly, data teams) to gain in productivity right from the searching stage.

      2. Data profiling: a statistical synthesis of the data present in the columns of a dataset

      Authorized (or not) by the Data Steward from the Studio, this feature offers data teams, from Zeenea Explorer, a preview of the data present in a dataset. 

      For each column, a statistical view is available. 

      The main values taken from a sample of the dataset and sent back via the connectors (BigQuery, PGSQL, etc.) are displayed and represented visually through graphs. 

      The proportion of missing data, distinct values, medians, data distributions, main values, etc. are represented as graphs and allow the user to quickly grasp the content of fields (columns) such as strings and numeric values. 

      3. Detail pages that facilitate the reading and the exchange of knowledge 

       The object detail pages present all the information of each object in the catalog (datasets, fields, visualizations, treatments).

       At the top of the page, the main elements of the object are concentrated in a synthesis of the element. Details are then presented in dedicated tabs. 

       The “questions & answers” tab allows users to find answers on an object and to call upon a community to obtain additional information specific to their needs. This not only enables collaboration between users, but also allows the knowledge related to any object to be recorded, enabling enterprises to better share their knowledge on data over time. 

      Coming soon on Zeenea Explorer :

      The objective of the next sprints will be to enhance the direct research with more advanced exploration steps.

      Our efforts will focus on the creation of “exploration paths” that will allow data teams to discover and be guided in the discovery of the items in the catalog. Configurable from the Studio, the back office of the Data Catalog, these paths will adapt to Explorer users and will provide a more relevant reading of the assets made available to them in Zeenea.

      The objective? To enable even more fluid and deeper navigation thanks to direct links between the levels of information. 

       

      Quickly find the right information

      Give your data teams an amazing search experience.

      read more
      Product launch: Zeenea Explorer, the data discovery application for your data teams

      Product launch: Zeenea Explorer, the data discovery application for your data teams

      by | Aug 24, 2020 | Zeenea product

      introduction zeenea explorer

      We are pleased to announce the launch of Zeenea Explorer, the data discovery application of our data catalog.

      This application announces the launch of a new generation of data catalog focused on user experience and issues. In regard to Zeenea Explorer, we wanted to further support our users’ exploratory approaches, beyond our search capabilities based on metadata indexing, scoring and filtering, already present in our first application: Zeenea Studio.

      We thus chose to separate our data catalog into 2 distinct apps:

      zeenea studio

      The very first one. Zeenea Studio is the application for your data management teams to manage, maintain and enrich the documentation of a data asset.

      zeenea studio

      And the most recent one, Zeenea Explorer, an application entirely dedicated to the exploration process of your data teams.

       

      Why Zeenea Explorer?

      As you know, your digital transformations have turned the information landscape upside down in all sectors by multiplying the volumes of available data and the people involved in their consumption and production.

      Your data must be understood by everyone, including the newer profiles you recently recruited (data scientists and data analysts) and your operational departments, whose maturity around data subjects is gradually increasing: product teams, marketing, finance, human resources, customer relations, logistics, etc.

      However, due to a lack of means to identify, locate and understand these datasets, they often remain opaque for the majority, and their potential cannot be exploited. Congnilytica survey revealed back in January 2019:

      “data science teams still spend 80% of their time preparing and cleaning their data rather than analyzing it”.

      The solution to this problem, is to build a registry for available datasets, document them through metadata, and provide data consumers with a catalog that allows them to search and consult their information.

      Our challenge was precisely to make a technological breakthrough in the field of metadata management, and to build a new generation data catalog, by developing applications focused on specific uses and by relying on strong user experiences, shared by new SaaS productivity tools and the automation of task management.

      Today, to meet the growing demand of your end-users (data scientists, analysts, DPOs, engineers, and more generally anyone seeking to use or understand the organization’s data), Zeenea offers in our data catalog a brand new application: Zeenea Explorer. This application aims to improve the exploratory functionalities of our data catalog.

       

      Zeenea Explorer: search across everything, your way

      Our great product team is convinced:
      “The relevance of a result is very much dependent on the role of the user, and his or her areas of intervention. For the same research, a Data Scientist will consider certain results relevant, while a Software Architect or a Security Manager will have other expectations.”

      So we took the gamble of separating the exploratory experiment from its data catalog in a brand new application. It wants to provide a strong user experience for your data consumers.

      In other words, Zeenea Explorer becomes the front-office application of our data catalog, strongly inspired by e-commerce sites and offers very simple ergonomics based on the search, exploration and collaboration of data and its uses.

      Customized and powerful searches

      From now on, Zeenea will continuously work on the construction of user profiles, as well as the integration of additional parameter in the search engine allowing to take into account this profile in the ranking of the results.

      Complimentary information displayed

      Profiling will include both statistical information managed in the applications (user functions, team membership, participation in projects, etc.) and dynamic information (search and exploration history). 

      Prioritization of information

      Not all teams have the same needs. With Zeenea Explorer, the display of information will vary depending on the teams and users. For the same asset, a Data Scientist will find certain information relevant, while a Data Architect or Security Manager will have other expectations. Thus, the application will refine the layout of the documentation so that each team has the data they need, at a glance.

      Pertinent suggestions

      In the same way as in the general public marketplace, users will be able to access personalized suggestions, and will access personalized search results that will enrich the recommendation system day after day. Explorer will provide spontaneous suggestions to different users as soon as they connect to the solution.

       

      The Data scientist, the first user of Zeenea Explorer, before many others…

      Zeenea announced its intention to initially focus on data science teams, the first profiles to be impacted in research and data mining within the company. This profound innovation aims to accelerate data science projects in companies. 

      Discover in the rest of this article, the first product advances of Zeenea Explorer 👉  Read our Product Spotlight article.

      Ah! I almost forgot, we now offer personalized demos. 😉

      Let’s Get Started

      Make data meaningful & discoverable for your teams

      GET A Free Demo
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      Product Spotlight: new items & connectors and even more automation

      Product Spotlight: new items & connectors and even more automation

      by | Jun 17, 2020 | Zeenea product
      Zeenea is focused on providing a new and user-centric experience allowing users to easily discover and understand their data asset landscape with our automated capabilities. In other words, becoming data fluent at the enterprise-level!

      Our Product Spotlight gives you the scoop on the latest Zeenea Workspace updates.

      Learn how to use Zeenea Data Catalog and meet your data projects’ deadlines by easily accessing reliable information.
      We’ve launched some new features and capabilities that we think you’ll love. They will enhance your enterprise assets in a unique source of truth. Here is a recap of the latest product release.

      1. Curate new data assets
        • Data visualisation items
        • Custom items
      2. Catalog your data with our new Atlas Connector
      3. Automated imports of data process items
      4. Data Catalog authentication enhanced
      5. New premium ERP & CRM connectors available

      Curate new data assets

      Zeenea automates the curation of your data assets, their schemas, business terms and data processes with its wide-range and powerful connectivity. 
      Despite this, we were aware that it was not enough for your data teams. To help them discover and leverage all your enterprise assets within our easy-to-use solution, we have extended our asset curation capabilities with 2 new items!

      FIND YOUR CONNECTORS

      Manage your Data visualization items

      Most organizations have adopted data visualization solutions to visually represent data in a way that maximizes its business value. However, those reports and analysis are still struggling to be shared and understood at the enterprise level. This is where Zeenea comes in!

      By connecting your data visualization solutions, such as PowerBI or Tableau, Zeenea is able to curate your reports into our Data Catalog and once again, simplify your data discovery journey.

      As for the other assets curated into Zeenea Studio, your Data Steward(s) can:

        • scan all of the data visualization reports stored in your solutions and automatically import them with their already existing documentation,
        • create effective metamodel templates to continue manually documenting your data visualization reports,
        • define the priority information to be filled in,
        • assign contact owners and other roles,
        • comment and search for the above assets.

      Create Custom items

      Enterprises deal with several kinds of assets. How can you keep control over an ever-growing number of assets? How do you keep them understandable and allow data teams to quickly find the most relevant information for their projects?

      To meet these challenges, Zeenea developed a new feature: Custom Items.

      You can now create, search for and document custom items within our data catalog. For example, these custom items could represent the applications your business uses, or what APIs are available within your organization.

      It provides structure to your asset landscape by recreating multilateral links throughout data assets.

      Designed to be used on a larger scale, Custom Items improve your organization’s knowledge graph: the more links you create, the more context you bring to your assets.

      More specifically, with this first version of the Custom Items, your Data Stewards can: 

      • Create new types of items in the catalog which will then be added to the list of native types already managed by Zeenea (Datasets, Business Terms, etc.);
      • Import your repositories’ content in order to populate your Custom Items with rich objects such as its name, description, contacts, etc.;
      • Customize information asset templates by using these new properties;
      • Create links between your assets and your Custom Items to categorize them;
      • And finally, use them as filters to explore the catalog and find relevant assets quicker.

      Catalog your data with our new Atlas Connector

      In order to deliver an enterprise and reliable data catalog, we provide many connectors that automate and curate metadata including Cloud & Big Data storages, Relational databases, Non relational databases, and more are constantly being developed.

      By using our connectors, Zeenea provides a reality driven data catalog for data-driven companies to ensure your data consumers access up-to-date information stored within our powerful platform. Today, we are keen to announce the release of the Atlas connector.

      Our connector will help you better manage data from an Atlas source. It can automatically connect to your database, and retrieve a broad range of metadata. Our Atlas connector is able to periodically collect information and detect modifications related to your schema. The connector can collect technical metadata, such as technical names, data types, constraints related to your tables and their columns, but also documentation you may have provided at the table of field level.

      Automated imports of Data Process items

      With the launch of our newest Atlas connector, we’re also releasing the possibility to import data processes from your dataset sources.

      When your data steward imports items from a source where there are known data processes, those processes and direct ancestor and child datasets are automatically imported into Zeenea Data Catalog. An item’s lineage is then immediately available and allows you to navigate and have a visual understanding of your data’s life cycle. A Process can not be inventoried or import by itself, it’s always linked to other items.

      There is still the possibility to manually create data processes if you want to enrich them with non-referenced processes. Data Processes are also imported with their existing documentation.

      As for the other assets curated into Zeenea Studio, your Data Steward(s) can:

      • create effective metamodel templates to continue manually documenting your data processes,
      • define the priority information to be filled in,
      • assign contact owners and other roles,
      • comment and search for the above assets.

      New premium ERP connectors available

      For the last 3 decades, companies have been relying on ERP and CRM systems to run their operations. In response to the need to comply with regulations, reduce risk, improve profitability, competitiveness and customer engagement, they have to become Data Driven.

      In addition to the need to leverage a wide variety of new data assets, strategic and historical data from those systems have to be involved in any Data Initiative.

      Understanding metadata coming from those ERP and CRM systems come with the following challenges:

      • They have large, complex, hard to understand and customized database models;
      • Understanding the logical descriptions, the relationship definitions and more means to serve Data Citizens is almost impossible without the appropriate help.

      Zeenea announces the immediate availability of its Premium ERP connectors (priced separately) in its Enterprise Edition to automate metadata management of the following systems.

      sap connector

      • SAP and SAP/4HANA
      • SAP BW

      salesforce connector

      oracle connector

      • Oracle E Business Suite
      • JD Edwards

      people-soft connector

      microsoft-dynamic-connector

      • MS Dynamics AX
      • MS Dynamics CRM

      siebel connector

      Data Catalog authentication enhanced

      User authentication is always the first step in any journey. For your employee, it can also cause frustration: the login and password changes for each service and it’s difficult to remember all of them.

      In order to make it easier for everyone, we now provide a brand new authentication system and a way to integrate your enterprise’s login.

      We support the most common identity providers and protocol types (Active Directory/LDAP, ADFS, Azure Active Directory Native, Azure Active Directory, OpenID Connect, PingFederate, SAML, GSuite)

      There is also the possibility to log in with specific Zeenea credentials if you need to keep Zeenea separate from your other activities and applications.

      Password management for this type of authentication has now been improved and responds better to security calls:  

      • security level has been implemented to maximize password complexity and security;
      • when you reset your password, we now send you an email.

      azure
      Azure Active Directory

      active directory
      Active Directory / LDAP

      adfs
      ADFS

      azure
      Azure Active Directory Native

      salm
      Open ID connect


      PingFederate


      Google G suite

      salm
      SALM

      How does Zeenea Data Catalog empower your data teams?

      How does Zeenea Data Catalog empower your data teams?

      by | Feb 26, 2020 | Data catalog, Zeenea product

      Data has become one of the main drivers for innovation for many sectors.

      And as data continues to rapidly multiply, companies need to evolve and grasp new technologies to succeed in their data & analytics strategy. And this is where Zeenea Data Catalog comes in!

      First of all, what are the problems of companies regarding their data?

      As a leading data catalog solution for data-driven companies such as LCL, Société Générale, Renault, we always come across, among others, three main issues:

      • Lack of visibility: With many different data sources such as various data warehouses, data lakes, cloud data, etc, it becomes complicated for employees to find the relevant data and thus, transforming Big Data into Big Chaos! It becomes confusing and demotivating for data teams to work with their data, as they end up spending most of their time wondering where their data actually is, and if it is still reliable. 
      • Lack of knowledge: Most enterprises today have specific people or teams that handle data since data is usually a very technical, complicated subject for employees. This lack of sharing and communicating of data reduces the enterprise’s potential to produce more value, at a local level where any employee becomes a valuable asset and data silos disappear.
      • Lack of culture: As many companies have understood, it is essential to implement data culture within the organization to truly become data driven. A good change management is sought out with the right people, processes, and solutions that offer a way for companies to create data literacy and facilitate their data journey.

      However, do not forget: with great data comes great responsibility! This refers to what we call a data democracy culture.

      And there is an answer for all of these issues: a modern and smart data catalog software.

      The choice of a data catalog in your company

      As mentioned above, many leading companies have trusted Zeenea in their quest for implementing a data catalog solution. Choosing Zeenea is choosing:

      • An overview of all of an enterprise’s data assets through our connectors,
      • A Google-esque search engine that enables employees to intuitively search for a dataset, business term, or even a field from just a single keyword. Narrow your search with various personalized filters (reliability score, popularity, type of document, etc.).
      • A collaborative application that allows enterprises to become acculturated to data thanks to collective knowledge, discussions, feeds, etc,
      • A machine learning technology that notifies you and gives suggestions as to your catalogued data’s documentation,
      • A dedicated user experience that allows data leaders to empower their data explorers to become autonomous in their data journeys.

      Learn more about our data catalog

      Contact us for more information on our data catalog for teams

      If you are interested in getting more information, getting a free personalized demo, or just want to say hi, do not hesitate to contact our team who will get back to you as soon as we’ve received your request 🙂

      Contact us

      Zeenea Data Catalog now connects to Snowflake!

      Zeenea Data Catalog now connects to Snowflake!

      by | Feb 14, 2020 | News & events, Zeenea product

      Zeenea announces the launching of its Snowflake connector already up and running with its clients. 

      In order to deliver an enterprise and relevant data catalog, we provide many connectors that automate and curate metadata including  Cloud & Big Data storages, Relational databases, Non relational databases, and more are constantly being added.

      By using our connectors, Zeenea provides a reality proof data catalog for data-driven companies to ensure your data consumers access up-to-date information stored within our powerful platform. 

      Founded in 2012, Snowflake developed a new data platform from the ground up to  the cloud. Its patented new architecture was designed to be the centerpiece for data pipelines, data warehousing, data lakes, data application developments, and for building data exchanges to easily and securely share governed data. Their promise? Deliver as a service data warehouse that’s powerful but simple to use.

      To achieve this, Snowflake also works with a wide array of industry-leading tools and technologies, enabling access to Snowflake through an extensive network of connectors, drivers, programming languages, and utilities. 

      It is, therefore, no surprise that we are announcing our integration with one of the most popular data management & cloud data platform of the moment with Zeenea Data Catalog. Welcome to Snowflake!

      What does our Snowflake connector do?

      Our connector will help you to better manage data in your Snowflake environment. It can automatically connect to your database, and retrieve a broad range of metadata. Our Zeenea Scanner process, which uses this new connector, is able to periodically collect information and detect modifications related to your schema. The connector can collect technical metadata, such as technical names, data types, constraints related to your tables and their columns, but also documentation you may have provided at the table of field level.

      This is our first version, be sure we will improve it with other great features in the coming weeks!

      The more information the connector collects, the less your Data Stewards have to fill in your Data Catalog. This is why we are considering metadata ingestion automation as a key success factor!

        Do you want to see our Snowflake connector in actions?

        Get a free demo

        Zeenea’s Fresh New Look: The right time to change!

        Zeenea’s Fresh New Look: The right time to change!

        by | Jan 15, 2020 | Zeenea product

        For the past three years, we’ve been working alongside enterprises who wish to lift innovation barriers by profiting off of their data assets.

        A major player in the metadata management market, we develop a “one-of-a-kind” Data Catalog in order for enterprises to become Data Fluent.

         

        The origin of “Be Data Fluent”!

        Our belief? Enterprises must become Data Fluent!

        Being Data Fluent means having data assets that are known and understood by all, making it possible for enterprises to transform data into exploitable knowledge. And, as you may already know, it is simply impossible to innovate or create value from the information that isn’t known or comprehensible.

        This vision also sheds light on a facilitated collaboration between different entities and profiles in the same organization. We wish to fluidify exchanges between the business and IT functions. In other words, being able to easily express, understand, and work with data.

         

        Our lean startup DNA!

        Lean startup methods are part of our DNA. We believe in continuously challenging and improving ourselves with an incremental approach, whether it’s by carrying out projects with our clients, or in the reflection and development of Zeenea.

        Thus, and from the start, we put the feedback and priorities of our users at the forefront in order to offer an application that gives a sense of facility, accessibility, and simplicity on a subject that seems rather the opposite.

        Our various interviews and exchanges have made us rethink our user experience with a brand new look!

        Towards a new era

        We are proud to present our data catalog’s new interface meant for data leaders, also known as Data Stewards. As data governance sponsors, Zeenea offers an application made for their pain points, ultimately allowing them the facilitate the sharing and understanding of their organization’s data assets.

        Here is Zeenea’s Fresh New Look!

        What is the difference between a data dictionary and a business glossary?

        What is the difference between a data dictionary and a business glossary?

        by | Nov 18, 2019 | Data catalog, Zeenea product

         

        In metadata management, we often talk about data dictionaries and business glossaries. Although they might sound similar, they’re actually quite different! Let’s take a look at their differences and relations.

        What is a data dictionary?

        A data dictionary is a collection of descriptions of data objects or items in a data model.

        These descriptions can include attributes, fields, or even properties on their data such as their types, transformations, relations, etc.

        Data dictionaries help data explorers better understand their data and metadata. Usually in the form of tables or spreadsheets, data dictionaries are a must have IT knowledge for technical users such as developers, data analysts, data scientists, etc.

         

        What is a business glossary?

        While data dictionaries are useful to technical users, a business glossary is meant to bring meaning and context to data in all departments of the enterprise.

        A business glossary is therefore a place where business and/or data terms are defined. It may sound simple, however, it is rare that all employees in an organization share a common understanding of even basic terms such as “contact” and “customer”.

        Example of a business glossary:

        The main differences between data dictionaries and business glossaries are:

        Data dictionaries deal with database and system specifications, mostly used by IT teams. Business glossaries are more accessible and standardize definitions for everyone in the organization.

        Data dictionaries usually come in the form of schemas, tables, columns, etc. whereas a business glossary provides a unique definition for business terms in textual form.

        A business glossary cross references terms and their relationships whereas data dictionaries do not.

        What is the relation between a data dictionary and a business glossary?

        The answer is simple: a business glossary provides meaning to the data dictionary.

        For example, a US social security number (SSN) will be defined as “a unique number assigned by the US government for the purpose of identifying individuals within the US Social Security System” in the business glossary. In the data dictionary, the term SSN is defined as “a nine character string typically displayed with hyphens”.

        If a data citizen ever has a doubt on what the term “SSN” means in the context of their data dictionary, they can always search for the associated business term inside the business glossary.

         

        Interested in automating a data dictionary and building a business glossary for your enterprise?

        Create a central metadata repository for all corporate data sources with our data catalog thanks to our connectors and APIs.

        Our tool also provides a user friendly and intuitive way to build and import your business glossaries in order to link these definitions with any Zeenea’s concepts.

        Create a single source of truth in your enterprise!

        Discover our Business Glossary

        Feature note #5 – Business Glossary

        Feature note #5 – Business Glossary

        by | Jul 4, 2019 | Zeenea product

        What is a Business Glossary?

        A business glossary makes it possible to define terms used within an enterprise. It is a trusted reference business “dictionary” in an organization.

        Its main objectives, among others, are to:

        • Use the same definitions and create a common language between all employees,
        • Have a better understanding and collaboration between business and IT teams,
        • Associate business terms to other assets in the enterprise and offer an overview of their different connections,
        • Elaborate and share a set of rules regarding data governance.

        Integrating a Business Glossary in Zeenea

        Since our latest release note 19.07, Zeenea offers a business glossary within its data catalog. This feature was developed to answer our clients’ needs: to link a business term to another informational asset, in our case, in the data domaine. 

        Zeenea automatically connects and imports your glossaries and dictionaries in our tool with our APIs. A glossary can also be manually created within Zeenea’s interface. 

        In the same way as you can for any given dataset, it is possible to visualize business terms in the “Glossary” tab. These new assets can be:

        • documented (descriptions, tags, properties, etc.)
        • linked to one or many contacts
        • indexed in our search engine
        • affiliated to a field in a dataset’s schema

        It is up to the Data Steward to confirm – manually or with our intelligent suggestions – one or more business terms to a field. This information can be documented and viewed on the field page of a dataset.

        Links between business terms and specific fields are also visible on the business terms page. On this page, the “fields” tab shows all of the fields related to the selected business terms.

         

        Watch the video

        Release Note July 2019: Business terms & new Connectors

        Release Note July 2019: Business terms & new Connectors

        by | Jul 1, 2019 | Zeenea product

        This latest release concentrates on the creation of new assets, business terms, and the technical environment in which Zeenea connects itself in the enterprise.

        Business Glossary

        A business glossary defines a certain number of terms that are linked to a business domain. Its objective is to align all collaborators on the definition of a specific term in the organization, as well as in database systems.

        Manually in Zeenea, or connected to the enterprise’s existing dictionaries, create a Business Glossary that is accessible in our data catalog.

        In order to establish a common language around data in an enterprise, it is necessary to offer this new asset to our clients – we call them business terms.

        These terms thus become assets, and like datasets, they are documentable and searchable in our tool. These business terms then become linked to the fields in datasets that are catalogued in Zeenea.

        All affiliated fields become visible on the screen of the business term in question.

        New connectors

        Zeenea offers new connectors. They are ElasticSearch, and Red Shift. Release after release, Zeenea develops a set of connectors that will automatically inventory newly stored datasets in your different bases. 

        We also offer open connectors on Open Data, such as CKan. 

        Deleted dataset detection

        With its connectors, Zeenea inventories and exposes on its interface all available datasets in the requested database. We are referring to our Data Discovery feature: Zeenea detects stored datasets and their modifications in the databases. 

        Currently, our data catalog notifies you when a dataset no longer exists in the storage systems connected to Zeenea. You will have the choice to keep the listed information in the data catalog or delete them.

        Choose Zeenea’s language

        In order to facilitate the use of Zeenea in your teams, our data catalog now supports different languages. Depending on your browser settings, you Zeenea is displayed in the language of your choice.

        Otherwise, Zeenea is by default in English. 🙂

        Feature note #5 – Business Glossary

        Feature note: Data Discovery

        by | Apr 9, 2019 | Zeenea product

        Do you know your enterprise’s data assets? The datasets that are stored in your data storages? The new datasets that were collected? And how frequently they are updated?

        Here are some of the questions that enterprises must answer in order to become data-driven.

        To help our clients map their data, Zeenea offers new features:

        Data discovery

        Through our connectors, Zeenea inventories and exposes from its interface all the datasets available in the requested database. This feature helps Chief Data Officers and their teams to map the enterprise’s data assets.

        In other words, from Zeenea’s interface, our data discovery feature allows you to:

        • Visualize data assets in each storage system that Zeenea is connected to (number of stored datasets and their IDs).
        • Identify your golden datasets for each data storage.
        • Import these datasets in Zeenea with just a few clicks.

        Automatic data discovery

        Do you know when a new dataset is stored in one of your bases? Or if one of your datasets has been updated (its documentation or schema)?

        Connected to your data systems, Zeenea detects newly collected and stored datasets as well as their modifications in your databases through its last inventory.

        Configure Zeenea’s crunch frequency in your databases and be notified of the latest “news”!

        API discovery

        Our Discovery API allows you to visualize new datasets stored by data storages from a specific date. It’s up to you to integrate them though Zeenea’s interface or to use the Discovery API to catalog the datasets that you wish to import.

        Feature note #5 – Business Glossary

        Feature note: catalog metadata in our metadata management platform

        by | Feb 27, 2019 | Zeenea product

        It is for this very reason that Zeenea is the enterprise’s metadata catalog. In other words, Zeenea references intrinsic metadata of various cataloged data sets  and allows you to personalize certain fields. What are they?

        A dataset’s metadata

        Contacts

        The various users of the catalog (where information is synched with an LDAP repository) can be associated with different data sets with a certain level of responsibility (configurable roles).

        Properties

        A properties system in the form of a key/value (configurable), which allows you to create a bona fide documentation data template.

        Tags

        A tags system lets you create an authentic taxonomy within the catalog.

        Metadata on dataset categories

        Data set categories allow you to organize the catalog and logically regroup data sets by technical validity or by business use.

        In the same way as for a data set, categories have their own metadata. Who is the referent contact of the category? What are the associated properties? What tags should be assigned to it? Etc.

        Metadata on a dataset’s diagram

        The representation of cataloged data sets’ diagram in Zeenea allows you to annotate the attributes of data sets (in columns) by the help of metadata (business name, descriptions, tags, sensitivity level, etc.).

        Feature note #5 – Business Glossary

        Feature note: Modular productivity template

        by | Feb 20, 2019 | Zeenea product

        The next generation of available applications on the market wants to be as modular as possible! This approach aims to offer customizable semantics and a non-intrusive construction in order to make their reading and integration more fluide in your environment.

        To know more about the subject, this article defines this new wave of software: Why Modular Productivity Softwares Are Only Just Beginning ?

        With this shared conviction, we develop a data catalog that will allow you, freely, to completely personalize your datasets documentation layout and thus, help you progress step by step.

        In this latest product release, we offer  the possibility to redesign with a modular approach your properties construction.

         

        Definitions associated with a data catalog

         

        • Dataset: a collection of data, commonly corresponding to a database table
        • Category: a category brings together different datasets grouped together by a Zeenea administrator based on their business or technical goal.
        • Process: the activities that led to the creation of a specific dataset.
        • Properties: a set of information giving context to a category, dataset or process.

         

        Modular properties:

        Zeenea automatically captures and updates technical and operation metadata from an enterprise’s data sources in its data catalog.  Our tool also allows you to add and configure – at the hand of the data catalog’s administrator –  to overlay information (information that can be mandatory or not) on Zeenea’s cataloged datasets. This additional information, we call them properties! This contextual information is mainly referred to business and operational documentation.

        Some examples of additional properties could be:

        • a data’s sensitivity level
        • how frequent a dataset is updated in Zeenea
        • the business unit
        • Etc.

        Via this approach, we offer to the tool’s administrator a simple and modular way to configure documentation templates according to the enterprise’s objectives and priorities.

         

        What does the future hold?

        This “custom layout” is the first step to a tool that we wish to be as modular and non-intrusive as possible!

        We want to offer a data catalog that will adapt to your organization and not the other way around.

        We will propose pre-configured property templates for administrators and automate tedious actions to increase productivity.

        For more information, contact us at info@zeenea.com.