US 2018/0121433 A1Published application

Discovery of data assets using metadata

AssigneeMicrosoft Technology Licensing, LLC

InventorsNarayan Nevrekar, Venkat Siva Sai Krishna Khanderao, Francisc Stugren, Atul Bhartia, Kevin Joseph Fischer, Scott Walter Rosemund

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Abstract

Data assets, such as streams, databases, spreadsheets, or other data sources or types, are identified and representations of the data asset are stored. The representation of a data asset includes a schema used by the data asset, a location of the data asset, and keywords or other descriptive information. The representations of each data asset are indexed, and a search interface is provided that allows users to search for relevant data assets. In addition, dependencies, or other relationship information, among the various data assets is maintained and is used to generate a graph that shows the interrelatedness of the data assets. The graph can be explored by users to select data assets, and used to alert users when a change has been made to a data asset that may affect a data asset that they have used.

Claims20

Dependent claims

A system for identifying data assets available from disparate sources and for storing metadata associated with the identified data assets to allow for the discovery of the identified data assets using queries from a centralized service, comprising:

at least one computing device;
and
a data asset engine adapted to:
identify a first data asset available from a first source, wherein the first data asset includes a first schema;
based on the identified first data asset, generate first metadata for the first data asset, wherein the first metadata includes the first schema and information about the first data asset;
store the generated first metadata with an indicator of the identified first data asset;
identify a second data asset available from a second source different from the first source, wherein the second data asset includes a second schema, and further wherein the second data asset is dependent on the first data asset;
based on the identified second data asset, generate second metadata for the second data asset, wherein the second metadata includes the second schema and information about the second data asset, and further wherein the second metadata includes information indicating that the second data asset is dependent on the first data asset;
and
store the generated second metadata with an indicator of the identified second data asset;
and
a user-interface adapted to:
generate graphical representations of the first data asset and the second data asset;
and
provide the graphical representations, wherein the graphical representations include the information indicating the dependency of the second data asset on the first data asset.

12 more elements

A system for storing metadata associated with data assets available from disparate sources to allow for the discovery of data assets using queries from a centralized service, comprising:

at least one computing device;
a user-interface adapted to receive a query;
and
a data asset engine adapted to:
for each of a plurality of data assets, store metadata for the data asset, wherein the metadata for a data asset comprises a schema used by the data asset, descriptive information about the data asset, and dependency information about the data asset, wherein each data asset of the plurality of data assets is available from a different source;
and
identify a subset of the plurality of data assets that are responsive to the query based on the descriptive information about each data asset, wherein the user-interface is further adapted to provide graphical representations of a portion of the descriptive information about one or more data assets of the identified subset of data assets and a portion of the dependency information about the one or more data assets of the identified subset of data assets.

4 more elements

A method for generating data assets available from disparate sources and for storing metadata associated with the generated data assets to allow for the discovery of the generated data assets using queries from a centralized service, comprising:

receiving a selection of a first data asset by a computing device, wherein the first data asset includes a first schema and is available from a first source, and further wherein the first data asset is associated with first metadata that includes the first schema and information about the first data asset;
generating a second data asset from the first data asset by the computing device, wherein the second data asset includes a second schema and is available from a second source different from the first source, and further wherein the second data asset is dependent on the first data asset;
generating second metadata for the second data asset by the computing device, wherein the second metadata includes the second schema and information about the second data asset, and further wherein the second metadata includes information indicating that the second data asset is dependent on the first data asset;
receiving a query by a user-interface of the computing device;
determining that the query matches the first metadata by the computing device;
in response to the determination that the query matches the first metadata, generating a graphical representation of a portion of the first metadata by the computing device, wherein the portion includes the information indicating that the second data asset is dependent on the first data asset;
and
providing the graphical representation of the portion of the first metadata by the user-interface of the computing device.

5 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.