> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://docs.ovaledge.com/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://docs.ovaledge.com/release8.3/data-catalog/data-catalog-overview.md).
# Data Catalog Overview
A **Data Catalog** is a centralized inventory that helps organize, manage, and search metadata (data about data) across an organization’s data ecosystem. It enables teams to discover, understand, and govern their data assets more effectively.
OvalEdge provides a complete data governance solution with an advanced Data Catalog and self-service tools. This enables monitoring of data behavior for analytics, understanding its origin, and identifying its relationships with other data.
The **Data Catalog** connects to various source systems, such as transactional databases, NoSQL databases, and data warehouses. It crawls all the organizations’ metadata, consolidating them into a single reference source. The established connection remains continuously active to fetch new updates on metadata and data whenever needed.
It catalogs metadata, which is data about data (name, type, length, and description). The cataloged metadata can be curated (edited, added, and managed) to extract maximum value from the data and consume relevant information quickly and efficiently, saving valuable time and resources.
### Build Data Catalog
The Data Catalog connects with various data sources using connectors to crawl and profile the metadata details of the remote data sources into the Data Catalog.
* **Connector Integration and Setup:** It enables seamless integration with a wide range of connectors, allowing businesses to connect many data sources and parse metadata from various data objects such as Tables, Files, Reports, and APIs.
* **Automated Crawling of Data Objects:** The Connectors automate data crawling to retrieve metadata (object name, source description) from source systems, ensuring systematic collection and storage of relevant data in the Data Catalog.
* **Comprehensive Data Profiling Capabilities:** It offers data profiling capabilities, enabling a thorough understanding of the attributes and quality of the data objects. This process allows proper decision-making and data-centric analytics by offering insights like Row Count, Column Count, Density, Null Density, and other relevant information.
The image below shows the Administration Connectors page's customizable data crawling and profiling settings. These settings allow businesses to set up the process based on specific requirements and preferences.
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Copyright © 2025, OvalEdge LLC, Peachtree Corners, GA USA
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