The explosion of data over the past decade has presented both opportunities and challenges for companies. While new technologies have made it easier to manage certain aspects of data, others remain stubbornly difficult to navigate. Enter Acryl Data, a startup that aims to help companies unlock the value of their stored data through its community-driven metadata platform.
The Challenges of Managing Data
Shirshanka Das and Swaroop Jagadish, co-founders of Acryl Data, have identified a pressing problem in the world of data management. With so much data being generated every day, companies are struggling to extract meaningful insights from it. This is often due to the fact that data teams are overworked, trying to cater to the needs of multiple departments within an organization while maintaining data policies consistently.
"Data teams are drowning in a sea of metadata," Das explained in an email interview with TechCrunch. "They need tools that can help them navigate this complexity and extract value from their data."
Introducing Acryl Data
Acryl Data is a community-driven metadata platform that offers central controls across the decentralized data stack. With its mission to bring clarity to data, Acryl provides a data catalog with solutions for data discovery, governance, lineage, and observability.
But what exactly is a data catalog? Simply put, it’s an inventory of data assets in an organization. Data catalogs consist of metadata, which includes definitions of database objects such as base tables, indexes, users, and user groups.
While there are already several startups offering data catalogs, Acryl’s approach stands out from the crowd. Built on the open-source framework DataHub, Acryl operates on event-driven metadata, only performing operations when triggered. This reduces the cost of data catalog maintenance while enabling a range of trigger-based workflows.
The Benefits of Event-Driven Metadata
According to Jagadish, Acryl’s approach offers several key advantages over rivals. "By operating on event-driven metadata, we can reduce the cost of data catalog maintenance while enabling a range of trigger-based workflows," he explained. "This makes it easier for companies to extract value from their data and make informed decisions."
But how does this actually work? In an interview with TechCrunch, Wiggers explained that Acryl’s event-driven metadata platform allows data teams to create custom workflows based on specific events or triggers. For example, if a company wants to alert data professionals whenever a new data asset is created, they can set up a workflow in Acryl to achieve this.
The Benefits for Data Teams
So what does all of this mean for data teams? In an interview with TechCrunch, Das explained that Acryl’s platform can help reduce the time it takes to resolve data issues significantly. "By providing a central resource for data professionals to ask and address questions, we can increase productivity and make it easier for them to extract value from their data," he said.
But that’s not all – Acryl’s platform also offers features such as lineage and impact analysis, which allow data professionals to understand the relationships between different data assets. This can help reduce errors and improve decision-making within an organization.
The Future of Data Management
As companies continue to generate more and more data, the need for effective data management solutions will only grow. Acryl Data’s community-driven metadata platform is well-positioned to meet this challenge, offering a range of features that can help companies unlock the value of their stored data.
With its focus on event-driven metadata and trigger-based workflows, Acryl’s platform is designed to be flexible and adaptable to the needs of different organizations. And with its commitment to transparency and community engagement, it’s clear that Acryl Data is a company that is dedicated to helping companies succeed in the world of data management.
About Acryl Data
Acryl Data is a startup that aims to help companies unlock the value of their stored data through its community-driven metadata platform. With its focus on event-driven metadata and trigger-based workflows, Acryl’s platform offers a range of features designed to increase productivity and make it easier for data teams to extract value from their data.