A database is a storage system that stores data in an organized manner for easy access and management. In just the last two years, 90% of the world’s data has been created, and the volume of global data doubles every two years. All this data is stored in databases. So, whether you’re checking the weather on your phone, making an online purchase, or even reading this blog, you’re accessing data stored in a database, highlighting their importance in modern data management.

Digitalization has led to more data collection, integral to many industries from healthcare diagnoses to financial transactions. For instance, hospitals use data governance practices to break siloed data and decrease the risk of misdiagnosis or treatment delays. Therefore, managing data to protect its integrity and security leads to high-quality, reliable data that empowers organizations to make informed decisions.

Organizations increasingly use data to gain a competitive edge. Two key disciplines have emerged at the forefront of this approach: data science and data analytics. While both fields help you extract insights from data, data analytics focuses more on analyzing historical data to guide decisions in the present. In contrast, data science enables you to create data-driven algorithms to forecast future outcomes. These disciplines differ significantly in their methodologies, tools, and outcomes.

Data analytics is the science of analyzing raw data to draw conclusions about it. The process involves examining extensive data sets to uncover hidden patterns, correlations, and other insights. With today’s technology, data analytics can go beyond traditional analysis, incorporating artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) algorithms that help process information faster than manual methods.

Online Analytical Processing (OLAP) is a computing technology through which users can extract and query data to analyze it from different points of view. These typically high-speed and complex queries are performed on massive data volumes stored in a data lake, data warehouse, or other large-scale repositories. Typical OLAP applications include business intelligence (BI) and forecasting and reporting.

Data governance covers processes, roles, policies, standards, and metrics that help an organization achieve its goals by ensuring the effective and efficient use of information. It sets up the processes and responsibilities necessary to maintain the data’s quality and security across the business. Data governance manages the formal data assets of an organization.

Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) is a popular communication method that enterprises use to exchange information accurately and quickly with trading partners. EDI transmits data almost instantaneously — serving as a fast and efficient mode for exchanging business documents. ANSI X12 vs. EDIFACT are the two most common EDI standards used for EDI, but they have different structures, styles, and usage.

A database schema, or DB schema, is an abstract design representing how your data is stored in a database. Database schemas can be visually represented using schema diagrams, such as the one below: A database schema diagram visually describes the following: Database schemas are at the heart of every scalable, high-performance database. They’re the blueprint that defines how a database stores and organizes data, its components’ relationships, and its response to queries.

Two related concepts often come up when data teams work on data governance: data provenance and data lineage. While they may seem similar at first glance, there are fundamental differences between the two concepts. Data provenance covers the origin and history of data, including its creation and modifications. On the other hand, data lineage tracks the data’s journey through various systems and processes, highlighting its flow and transformation across different data pipeline stages.

Data observability is a process that actively monitors an organization’s data for accuracy, health, and usefulness. It is the ability of an organization to have comprehensive visibility over its entire data landscape, including data pipelines, infrastructure, and applications. Data observability allows the organization to quickly identify, control, prevent, remediate, and fix data outages, all within agreed service level agreements (SLAs).