Your Catalog Investment Works Perfectly, on 20% of Your Data.
Learn how to extend governance to unstructured data and transform catalog adoption without rip-and-replace.
- Type: Events
- Date: 03/12/2025
- Author: Alistair Jones & Kyle DuPont
Watch Webinar - Extend Catalog
This session draws on deployments across financial services, manufacturing, and government to share a practical framework for extending catalog governance to unstructured data.
The Framework for Catalog Extension:
- Why the 80% blind spot exists and kills adoption: Understand why catalogs work for structured data but can't see unstructured files
- What data technical debt costs you: Real metrics: 40-60% unknown sensitive data, 10-20% wasted storage, 50% slower audits
- The three paths forward: Compare replace vs. build vs. extend approaches with real cost and timeline data
- Extension architecture that works: Learn how to integrate unstructured data metadata into your existing catalog platform
- How to transform catalog adoption: View on-premises, air-gapped deployment options with data never leaving your control.
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You're not protecting your investment.
You're living with its blind spot.
Every day, you field another question:
- "Can we move this to the cloud?"
- "Is this data AI-ready?"
- "How fast can we respond to this DSAR?"
But here's your honest answer:
- "I don't know what's in our file shares."
- "I don't know what metadata exists. And frankly, nobody knows where half our data actually lives."
Your catalog governs databases and cloud apps beautifully. But 80% of your data on network drives, email archives, and document repositories sits completely outside its view.
This creates data technical debt that compounds daily: 40-60% of sensitive data unknown, business users bypassing your catalog, multi-year implementations with disappointing adoption metrics.
You're not lacking governance tools. You've invested millions in them. But somewhere in those petabytes of unstructured files are both the insights that could transform your business and the compliance violations that could destroy it.
If you're a data governance leader, CDO, or privacy officer, this is your reality:
- Business users can't find documents, so catalog adoption stalls
- Regulators requiring proof of data control you can't provide
- 80% of your data sitting unclassified, ungoverned, and blocking initiatives
- Pressure to extend governance without replacing your catalog investment
Why This Matters Now
The cost of catalog blind spots is compounding:
Regulatory pressure intensifying
Regulators are cracking down on data security and labeling and can even block M&A approvals until data control is proven. The "we're working on it" defense is expiring.
Cloud migration deadlines approaching
Data center contracts expiring. Cloud-first mandates from leadership. But you can't migrate 10+ petabytes you haven't classified.
AI competitive window closing
Your competitors are deploying AI on governed data while you're explaining why your catalog can't see 80% of enterprise knowledge.
Who Should Watch
Primary Audience:
- Chief Data Officers and Deputies
- Data Governance Directors and Managers
- Chief Privacy Officers / DPOs
- Data Catalog Platform Owners
Supporting Teams:
- Enterprise Architects
- Compliance and Risk Management
- AI/ML Initiative Leaders
- Information Security
Share with your team. Shared understanding accelerates implementation.
