Data Model Patterns: A Metadata Map

7 ½ X 9 ¼ in In recent years, companies and government agencies have come to realize that the data they use represent a significant corporate resource, whose cost calls for management every bit as rigorous as the management of human resources, money, and capital equipment. With this realization has come recognition of the importance to integrate the data that has traditionally only been available from disparate sources. An important component of this integration is the management of the metadata that describe, catalogue, and provide access to the various forms of underlying business data. The metadata repository is essential keeping track both of the various physical components of these systems, but also their semantics. What do we mean by customer? Where can we find information about our customers?