Explore Business Assets
Learning Objectives
After completing this unit, you'll be able to:
- Distinguish business assets from technical assets.
- Identify the types of business assets available in Cloud Data Governance and Catalog.
- Explain how to explore business assets in the Browse section of the catalog.
Where Business Context Lives
When you open Cloud Data Governance and Catalog (CDGC), you enter into a platform where two kinds of assets work side by side—technical assets and business assets. Both live in the same catalog, but they serve different purposes. Understanding the difference is the foundation of everything you'll do in CDGC.
Angela Duran, a business analyst at Infiwave, reviews the governance policies in place for customer data. Her manager wants to confirm which assets they cover. She also wants to understand how key business terms are defined across the organization. Different teams at Infiwave use the same terms in different ways, which leads to conflicting reports and unclear ownership. Angela opens CDGC to find answers. But before she dives in, she takes a moment to understand the two types of assets she'll be working with—and why both matter.
Technical Assets and Business Assets
Technical assets are files, data elements, and data containers extracted from data sources by the Metadata Command Center (MCC). You use technical assets to perform catalog functions such as searching for data using technical parameters, understanding the lineage of assets, and identifying relationships between them. Examples include flat files, flat fields, tables, columns, and schemas extracted from sources like Oracle databases, Amazon S3 buckets, and Azure storage.
Business assets provide business context to your data so that you can govern it and use it to make business decisions. These assets are created or configured directly by users in CDGC—they don't come from external systems. While technical assets tell you what data exists and where it lives, business assets tell you what it means, who's responsible for it, and what rules apply to it. Examples include Glossary assets, Systems, Datasets, Policies, and Processes.
The key distinction is that you review technical assets to understand your data technically, and business assets to understand your data in a business context.
|
Technical Asset |
Business Asset |
|---|---|---|
Source |
Extracted automatically from connected data sources via MCC |
Created and configured by users in CDGC |
Purpose |
Catalog functions—lineage, profiling, relationships |
Governance functions—context, compliance, collaboration |
Examples |
Tables, flat files, columns, schemas |
Business Terms, Policies, Processes, Systems |
Properties |
Overview, Contains, Hierarchy, Lineage, Relationships, Stakeholders, Data Quality, History, Tickets |
Overview, Hierarchy, Lineage, Relationships, Stakeholders, Data Quality, History, Tickets |
Types of Business Assets
CDGC includes a wide range of business asset types, and each serves a specific governance purpose. Glossary assets (Domains, Sub-Domains, Business Terms, and Metrics) define business vocabulary. Systems and Datasets provide business context to technical data elements. Policies describe governance rules and link them to assets. Processes represent real-life business workflows. Additional types—AI Model, Business Area, Project, Legal Entity, Geography, and Regulation—give your organization a complete toolkit for data governance.
Business Asset Type |
Purpose |
|---|---|
Glossary (Domain, Sub-Domain, Business Term, Metric) |
This defines business concepts and vocabulary across the organization. |
Systems |
This represents containers for datasets, providing business context for specific functions. |
Datasets |
This represents data elements from data sources in business terms. |
Policies |
This describes governance rules and links them to the assets they govern. |
Processes |
This represents real-life business processes and their connections to data. |
AI Model |
This is the business representation of a data science model used for forecasting or prediction. |
Business Area |
This is a department or business function within the organization. |
Project |
This is a set of planned activities organized to achieve specific objectives. |
Legal Entity |
These are corporate entities, trusted partners, and vendors associated with other business assets. |
Geography |
These are areas, regions, or countries relevant to the organization's operations. |
Regulation |
These are external laws or directives that shape internal policies. |
Browse Business Assets
The Browse page is Angela's starting point for exploring all these assets in CDGC. It displays assets in a hierarchical structure, organized by type—so even when Angela isn't sure exactly what she's searching for, she can navigate confidently.
To browse business assets:
- In the CDGC left panel, select Browse.
- Select the Glossary tab to view Domains, Sub-Domains, Business Terms, and Metrics.
- Select the Policy tab to view policies and their subpolicy hierarchies.
- Select the Process tab to view all processes and their subprocesses.
- Select any asset name to open it in Asset 360-degree view, a detailed page that includes all properties, relationships, lineage, and more.
When you select (but don't click) an asset in the Browse list, a summary panel opens on the right with a quick overview. This lets you scan assets quickly without committing to a full page load.
Angela now has a clear picture of the two types of assets in CDGC and knows where to find them. In the next unit, she explores the business glossary to find the official definitions her teams need.