Data governance operations in highly distributed data platforms

A method comprising:

• receiving a plurality of requests for data records from a plurality of clients, wherein the data records are in a plurality of data systems of a global namespace, and wherein the plurality of data systems are in a plurality of locations;
• determining whether a given client of the plurality of clients is allowed access to one or more of the data records based on one or more of a plurality of data access policies;
• retrieving the one or more of the data records from at least one of the plurality of data systems based on a determination that the given client is allowed access to the one or more of the data records;
• providing the one or more of the data records to the given client;
• and
• generating a plurality of data descriptors describing one or more characteristics of respective data records, wherein the one or more characteristics comprise one or more schemas for structuring content of one or more of the respective data records and respective versions of the one or more schemas, the one or more schemas defining how the content is organized in the one or more of the respective data records and how relationships in the content are structured;
• wherein retrieving the one or more of the data records comprises:
• determining a location of the plurality of locations for the one or more of the data records;
• and
• generating a channel to the location through which the one or more of the data records are retrieved;
• wherein the method is performed by at least one processing platform comprising at least one processing device comprising a processor coupled to a memory.

A computer program product comprising a non-transitory processor-readable storage medium having stored therein program code of one or more software programs, wherein the program code when executed by at least one processing platform causes said at least one processing platform:

• to receive a plurality of requests for data records from a plurality of clients, wherein the data records are in a plurality of data systems of a global namespace, and wherein the plurality of data systems are in a plurality of locations;
• to determine whether a given client of the plurality of clients is allowed access to one or more of the data records based on one or more of a plurality of data access policies;
• to retrieve the one or more of the data records from at least one of the plurality of data systems based on a determination that the given client is allowed access to the one or more of the data records;
• to provide the one or more of the data records to the given client;
• and
• to generate a plurality of data descriptors describing one or more characteristics of respective data records, wherein the one or more characteristics comprise one or more schemas for structuring content of one or more of the respective data records and respective versions of the one or more schemas, the one or more schemas defining how the content is organized in the one or more of the respective data records and how relationships in the content are structured;
• wherein in retrieving the one or more of the data records, said at least one processing platform is configured:
• to determine a location of the plurality of locations for the one or more of the data records;
• and
• to generate a channel to the location through which the one or more of the data records are retrieved.