Data Management Glossary
Metadatabase
In unstructured data, a metadatabase is a virtual database of metadata (data about data) that provides additional structure and context to this data so that it is more usable and searchable for a variety of use cases. Unstructured data, due to its wide variety in formats, types, sizes and locations, is difficult to manage and understand. Metadata provides valuable keys to this data so that it can be leveraged across the organization for AI and analytics and also managed effectively for cost reduction and compliance.
What’s in a Metadatabase?
The metadata in a metadatabase can include information such as file names, file types, creation dates, tags, authors, sizes, formats, and locations. Metadata is even more useful when enriched by analysis and tagging. For example, image files could be indexed based on facial or building recognition tags and text documents could be indexed based on keywords or sentiment.
A critical use case for security and compliance is to index data based on its sensitivity – such as PII or IP data. That way, IT users can ensure sensitive data is segmented from AI data workflows and stored in compliant locations. For AI, tags could entail keywords describing file contents such as medical diagnosis or seismic data, so that precise data sets can be culled for model training or inferencing. A metadatabase can manage all these data tags at scale and provide a simple, rapid way for users to search data based on these tags and take actions accordingly.
Benefits of a Metadatabase for Unstructured Data
An unstructured data management solution with a metadatabase gives IT teams a way to collect, manage and enrich metadata across all storage systems, on-premises to the cloud. It delivers several benefits for IT, including data classification, search and querying across petabyte-scale data estates, access control, data provenance (history and lineage), full visibility and drill-down capabilities to manage data compliance, AI data governance and costs, and integration with automated data workflows.
Learn more about the Komprise Global File Index, a metadatabase for file and object data across the hybrid cloud estate.
Learn more about Komprise Smart Data Workflows, which integrates with the Global File Index to deliver automated processes for data search, data classification, data tagging, data movement and AI data ingestion.