Concepts and definitions

Analytics Data Lake

A centralised repository that allows you to store structured and unstructured data at any scale. It enables you to break down data silos and combine different types of analytics to gain insights and guide better business decisions.

Data Mesh

A decentralised socio-technical approach to data management and analytics that treats data as a product and applies domain-oriented, self-serve design to distribute data ownership and architecture.

Data Product

A reusable dataset with clear ownership, documentation, and service-level objectives that can be easily discovered and consumed by authorised users across the organisation.

Federated Access Control

A security mechanism that enables centralised management of user identities and access permissions across multiple systems and domains while maintaining consistent security policies.

Data Governance

The overall management of data availability, usability, integrity, and security in an enterprise system. It includes policies, procedures, and standards that ensure data is managed consistently and used appropriately.

Data Quality

The measure of data’s condition and its fitness to serve its intended purpose in a given context. This includes accuracy, completeness, consistency, timeliness, and validity of the data.

Self-Service Analytics

A form of business intelligence where users can access and analyse data without requiring assistance from IT or data specialists, enabling faster decision-making and reducing bottlenecks.

Data Catalog

A centralised metadata repository that helps organisations discover, understand, and manage their data assets. It provides a searchable inventory of data assets across the data platform.

Data Pipeline

A series of automated steps that extract data from various sources, transform it according to business rules, and load it into target systems for analysis and reporting.

Data Domain

A logical grouping of related data assets and processes managed by a specific business unit or team, typically aligned with organisational functions or business capabilities.