Get Started with IDMC and CDGC
Learning Objectives
After completing this unit, you’ll be able to:
- Describe Informatica Intelligent Data Management Cloud services.
- Define key Cloud Data Governance and Catalog terms and concepts.
The Platform Behind CDGC
Before Angela can get the most out of Cloud Data Governance and Catalog (CDGC), she needs to understand the bigger platform it lives in—Informatica Intelligent Data Management Cloud, or IDMC.
IDMC is a cloud-native, AI data management platform that provides a complete suite of services for managing data across any cloud or hybrid environment. It’s the successor to Informatica Intelligent Cloud Services (IICS) and helps businesses efficiently handle the complex challenges of dispersed data—virtually on any platform, on any cloud.
IDMC features include:
- Cloud-native at scale: Elastic and serverless processing for all enterprise workloads
- AI-native at scale: Automates thousands of manual tasks and accelerates data-led transformations
- Multi-cloud, multi-hybrid: Works across multiple cloud environments and on-premises systems
- Low-code/no-code experience: Makes data management accessible to a wide range of users
- Security and trust by design: Built-in principles for data protection and compliance
IDMC Capabilities
IDMC provides a broad set of capabilities, organized into service areas.
- Data Catalog: Intelligently scan metadata to discover and understand your enterprise data.
- Data Integration and Engineering: Access and integrate data at scale.
- Data Quality and Observability: Deliver consistent, trusted, and governed data across the enterprise.
- APIs and App Integration: Connect applications and automate end-to-end business processes.
- MDM and 360 Applications: Innovate with 360-degree views of business data.
- Data Marketplace: It’s the industry’s only cloud-native, AI-powered solution for data sharing.
- Governance and Privacy: Data intelligence to govern, protect, and democratize your data.
Key IDMC Services Used with CDGC
To successfully govern your data with CDGC, you utilize several interconnected IDMC capabilities.
- Administrator: Handles licensing, user profiles, groups, security permissions, connection details, and runtime setups
- Cloud Data Governance and Catalog: Serves as the central hub for overseeing asset management, data lineage, cataloging, and corporate governance
- Metadata Command Center: Extracts technical asset information from databases, storage warehouses, and integration resources straight into the catalog platform
- Data Quality (optional): Validates and improves the overall usability and accuracy of your enterprise information assets
- Application Integration (optional): Orchestrates automated workflows and establishes connections with external applications
Key Terms and Concepts in CDGC
Before diving in, here are the essential terms Angela needs to know.
Org and Sub-Org
- Org: A parent IDMC organization—generally, one org exists per company where all users log in and create objects. Large companies might have separate orgs per business unit.
- Sub-org: A child organization within a parent org, used to segment users or data for specific teams or regions.
Business Glossary
A collection of business terms along with their definitions and explanations as related to the business. Business glossaries help align the language used by different teams across the organization.
Data Assets
A data asset is source data that you work with as a unit. This can include flat files, tables, or table views. Building a data catalog involves collecting information about these assets.
Technical Assets
Metadata extracted automatically from source systems when a metadata extraction job runs in Metadata Command Center. Technical assets include catalog sources, databases, columns, views, and data classifications. They enable catalog functions such as searching, lineage tracing, and relationship identification.
Business Assets
Created manually when documenting new assets or enriching data with business metadata. Business assets include glossary terms, policies, domains, and data sets. They support governance activities such as stakeholder collaboration, audit history review, and regulatory compliance.
Data Access Assets
Created when building policies that control, filter, or de-identify data in source systems. Types include:
- Data access control policies: Grant or restrict data access.
- Data filter policies: Filter data based on defined rules.
- Data de-identification policies: Mask or anonymize sensitive data.
Data Profiling
A process that reads and examines a data set to determine characteristics about it—such as null percentages, value frequency, and data patterns.
Data Classification
A process that identifies and organizes data into relevant categories based on the functional meaning of the data. For example, flagging a column as containing personally identifiable information (PII).
Policies
A set of basic principles and associated guidelines, formulated and enforced by the governing body, to achieve long-term goals. In CDGC, you can apply policies to assets to govern how data is accessed and used.
In this unit, you explored the IDMC platform that powers CDGC, its capabilities and services, and the key terms and concepts you need to get started. In the next unit, you log in to IDMC, navigate the CDGC home page, and set up your profile and notification preferences so you’re ready to work.