Data Stewardship with Apache Atlas

Concepts for collecting, creating, and using metadata.

The value of Atlas metadata for organizing and finding data increases when you augment the generated “technical” metadata by using your organization's business vocabulary. Here’s how you would do that:

  • Tools. You can add metadata to entities using labels, classifications, attributes, and a glossary of terms. The glossary allows you to identify synonyms so that the vocabulary from different teams does not get in the way of identifying the same data.
  • Planning. Figure out who and how to apply the tools; set up an overall plan for what kinds of metadata you want to apply, design some conventions for how to apply them and who can apply them. Design some processes to oversee metadata as it collects to make sure the results are consistent and useful; identify synonyms and antonyms.
  • Examples. This document includes examples of ways you can organize your metadata; strategies that describe how to optimize for specific use cases.