ABSTRACT: This blog post explores the evolving landscape of data catalogs, highlighting ten key market trends driving the adoption of next-generation solutions.

Read time: 3 mins.

Enterprise data catalogs have long been the backbone of metadata management in organizations. However, their complexity often leaves non-technical users struggling, leading to limited adoption and missed opportunities. 

Traditional data catalogs, while powerful, are often designed with technical users in mind, making them difficult for non-technical staff to use effectively. This disconnect means that many organizations are unable to fully leverage their data assets, resulting in inefficiencies and a lack of actionable insights.

Introducing Next-Generation Data Catalogs

To address these challenges, a new breed of data catalogs has emerged. These next-gen solutions are designed to be accessible for both technical and non-technical users, providing a seamless experience that traditional catalogs often fail to deliver. To give a clear understanding of these innovative tools, we've conducted extensive research and compiled our findings into a comprehensive report: "Next-Generation Data Catalogs: Five Products You Should Know."

Over several months, we contacted over a dozen vendors, held multiple briefings, and adapted our evaluation criteria to ensure comprehensive coverage. Our mission was to identify the most promising next-generation data catalogs and provide a detailed analysis to help data leaders make informed decisions. In my previous blog post(add the link once published), I detailed our methodology and highlighted the unique value this report offers to organizations seeking efficient data catalog solutions.

Market Opportunity and Need for Data Catalogs

Organizations of all sizes recognize the need for robust metadata management to support data discovery, self-service analytics, governance, compliance, data migration, and cost optimization. This growing recognition is driving the rapid adoption of next-generation data catalogs. Here are the key trends listed in our top-tier report: 

1. Faster, Better, Cheaper

These new data catalogs are built for ease of use, targeting business users and leveraging cloud-native environments. They offer significant functionality at a lower cost, providing up to 80% of the capabilities of traditional data catalogs at a fraction of the price.

2. Growing Importance of Metadata Repositories

Robust metadata repositories support data discovery, self-service, governance, compliance, data migration, and cost optimization. Organizations of all sizes are increasingly recognizing their value.

3. Market Opportunities

As demand for accessible solutions grows, new vendors have the chance to provide tools that cater to non-technical users and specific business needs. This market timing is perfect for next-generation data catalogs.

4. Startups Leading the Charge

The vendors we profile—Castor Doc, Metaphor, Select Star, ThinkData Works, and Zeenea—are innovative startups. Most founded around 2020, these companies are quickly gaining traction and offering competitive alternatives to traditional data catalogs.

5. Diverse Use Cases

Next-generation data catalogs support a wide range of use cases, including data discovery, metadata capture, indexing, classification, and tagging. Some even offer direct data access and data governance features.

6. Competitive Pricing

These new data catalogs feature aggressive pricing compared to incumbents, with annual enterprise licenses ranging between $70,000 and $90,000. 

7. Advanced Architecture

These products are cloud-native, SaaS solutions, supporting private virtual clouds and multiple cloud platforms. Vendors like Metaphor and Zeenea utilize knowledge graphs to enhance contextual relationships among assets, users, and interactions.

8. Extensive Integration and Embedding

Most of these products offer numerous connectors to various applications, including cloud data platforms, BI tools, and data observability tools. They also support integration with on-premises systems and embedding in applications like Slack, Microsoft Teams, and Google Chrome to drive adoption and ease of use.

9. User-friendly GUI and Lineage

Emphasizing simplicity and ease of use, these data catalogs feature personalized home pages, social experiences, and enhanced data lineage displays. The goal is to make data lineage accessible to non-technical users without compromising detail.

10. GenAI

Leveraging generative AI, these tools support natural language searches, create labels, textual descriptions, and glossary definitions, making data catalogs more intuitive and accessible to a broader range of users.

Navigate the Future of Data Catalogs

The trends outlined here highlight the transformative developments in the data catalog space and the critical importance of selecting the right solution for your organization. To dive deeper into these trends and explore the vendors leading the charge, purchase your copy today.