As someone who works closely with data professionals every day, I watch them forecast trends, predict outcomes, and prescribe actions that lead to informed decisions and business success. From analyzing customer behavior to identifying risks like fraud or cyber threats, to guiding product development priorities, their impact is felt across the organization. But none of this is possible without strong metadata management.

When data professionals can quickly access trustworthy information, they can build solid models and deliver real results. At the end of the day, every department relies on input from the data team’s analysis, and strong metadata management capabilities are a must. I’ve witnessed it firsthand — without access to trustworthy information, data professionals languish and the business suffers.

The challenges of metadata management 

Many organizations grapple with the complexities of metadata management and the challenges of gaining visibility into their data lineage. I once appealed to a board for the budget to accomplish their stated mission: Trusted data, with no disagreement on KPIs. But without accurate data lineage or metadata, I had to depict the problem with a Jackson Pollock painting.

With diverse infrastructures and ecosystems not under one roof, they face significant challenges in analyzing data flows from disparate sources, which go through a myriad of transformations. Data flows are difficult to analyze when multiple changes have been applied to disparate data sources distributed across diverse infrastructures and ecosystems. That sprawl leads to outdated and redundant copies of information, version control issues, an absence of data governance, and an overall lack of trust in the data. 

Roughly 77% of data engineers claim they have data quality issues, and 91% of that group say those issues impact company performance. For industries like finance, healthcare, and telecommunications, where regulatory compliance is paramount, data quality issues pose significant risks.

How Cloudera and Octopai address the problem 

At Cloudera, we understand the critical role metadata management plays in navigating these challenges. To further strengthen our offerings, we recently acquired Octopai’s best-in-class automated data lineage and catalog platform. Combined with Cloudera’s hybrid data platform, Octopai’s solution will deliver enhanced metadata management capabilities, elucidate lineage, and help enterprises increase business efficiency to gain a competitive edge. 

Octopai simplifies data discovery and governance, allowing enterprises to make faster, more confident decisions. Automation enables users to instantly locate relevant data across diverse systems, track data flows with end-to-end data lineage from on-prem, cloud, or hybrid systems, and proactively expose issues like process bottlenecks or reporting errors. These automated features reduce data management effort while improving data quality for operational efficiency. 

Octopai’s capabilities extend across all data storage environments, including those outside Cloudera’s solutions, providing seamless metadata intelligence across hybrid environments. By automating governance and enhancing data security, enterprises can unlock the full potential of their data, fostering innovation and competitive advantage. 

Similarly, Octopai’s self-updating data catalog and AI-powered insights provide users with real-time visibility into their data estate. Consumers gain a unified view of their data, enabling faster and more informed decision-making. Meanwhile, data professionals benefit from advanced governance, automated tracking, ease of use, and encryption capabilities that ensure data security and reduced costs. 

Cloudera and Octopai: Redefining metadata management

Metadata management is no longer a nice-to-have — it is a strategic necessity. It enables organizations to classify and organize data effectively, visualize complete lineage histories, and meet regulatory requirements like GDPR, CCPA, and HIPAA. By combining Octopai’s capabilities with Cloudera’s hybrid data technologies, enterprises can automate critical tasks and leverage the most relevant data instantly for strategic decision-making. 

Together, Cloudera and Octopai are transforming how organizations manage metadata, track data lineage, and power AI-driven innovation. In a world where data is a company’s most valuable asset, this combination sets a new standard for what’s possible in metadata management.

About the Author:

Shayde Christian is Chief Data and Analytics Officer at Cloudera. He guides data-driven cultural change for Cloudera to generate maximum value from data. Christian enables customers to get the absolute best from their Cloudera products such that they can generate high-value use cases for competitive advantage.

Previously a principal consultant, Christian formulated data strategy for Fortune 500 clients and designed, constructed, or turned around failing enterprise information management organizations. He enjoys laughter and is often the cause of it.