Overview of Data Governance with Azure

Video Summary:

Learning Objectives

By the end of this lesson, you’ll be able to define data governance with Microsoft Azure and explore the features of Microsoft Purview, Azure’s unified data governance solution.

Overview of Data Governance with Microsoft Azure

Data governance with Microsoft Azure is powered by Microsoft Purview, a comprehensive tool that helps organizations govern their data across on-premises, multicloud, and SaaS platforms. Purview provides a holistic view of an organization’s entire data landscape, offering features like automated data discovery, sensitive data classification, and end-to-end data lineage. This allows businesses to manage, protect, and maximize the value of their data while ensuring compliance.

Key Features of Microsoft Purview

• Unified Data Map: Microsoft Purview creates a unified map of your entire data estate, providing a clear view of data assets and their relationships. This enhances data governance by allowing organizations to see how data moves and interacts within various systems.
• Business and Technical Glossary: Purview offers a data glossary that aids in data discovery by utilizing common business and technical search terms, making it easier for users to locate and understand data.
• Sensitive Data Insights: With Purview, organizations gain insights into the management of sensitive data across their estate, helping ensure data security and compliance. Sensitive data is automatically classified and labeled consistently across systems like SQL Server, Azure, Microsoft 365, and Power BI.
• Data Lineage Visualization: Purview offers interactive data lineage visualization, allowing users to track the flow of data from its source to its final destination. This helps businesses understand the origin of data and how it has been transformed.
• Hybrid Data Integration: Purview automates the management of metadata from hybrid sources (on-premises and cloud), making it easy to integrate all your data catalogs using Apache Atlas APIs.
• In-Place Data Sharing: Organizations can share data in near real-time without duplicating or moving the data. This feature allows for quick provisioning of data access and enables data engineers and owners to easily manage who has access to the right data.
• Support for Multiple Services: Purview supports a wide array of Azure services such as Azure Blob Storage, Azure Data Lake, Azure SQL Database, and SQL Server 2022. This ensures that data governance practices can be applied consistently across various storage solutions.

Real-Life Application of Data Governance with Microsoft Purview

In the real world, companies like Heineken rely on Microsoft Purview to govern their global data operations. With data spread across multiple regions and platforms, Purview allows Heineken to maintain compliance with data protection regulations such as GDPR while improving data discoverability for teams working on analytics and product development. This provides both visibility and control over their distributed data landscape, ensuring the right teams have access to the right data at the right time.

Another real-life example is Marks & Spencer, a UK-based retailer that uses Purview to unify data governance across its Azure and on-premises environments. By leveraging Purview’s data mapping and lineage features, Marks & Spencer can track the flow of data, ensuring its retail and customer data is managed efficiently, securely, and in compliance with regulations.

Applying Microsoft Purview to Real-World Problems

Data compliance and data management across hybrid environments are critical challenges faced by many organizations. For example, a financial services company managing customer data across Azure and on-premises servers can use Purview’s data lineage to ensure data flows are monitored and secure, which is crucial for complying with regulations like SOX or GDPR.

Similarly, healthcare organizations dealing with HIPAA compliance can benefit from Purview’s sensitive data insights to classify patient records accurately, ensuring that only authorized personnel have access. With in-place data sharing, healthcare providers can securely share data for research purposes without risking data breaches or violating patient privacy regulations.

Purview’s automated data discovery and metadata management capabilities help organizations maintain control over increasingly complex data environments, ensuring that data is always discoverable, protected, and used efficiently. Whether handling financial records, healthcare data, or customer analytics, Microsoft Purview provides an end-to-end governance solution that scales across hybrid cloud environments.

Mnemonic Reviewer:

• U-G-S-L-H-I-S
  • U: Unified Data Map
  • G: Glossary for Search Terms
  • S: Sensitive Data Insights
  • L: Lineage Visualization
  • H: Hybrid Data Integration
  • I: In-Place Data Sharing
  • S: Support for Multiple Azure Services