Metadata is the data about the database as the card catalog is data about the library books. Metadata helps to trace the data easily.
As we know, the database is a huge collection of data. All the data are stored in a different location and on different servers. While we accessing the data, the data is ready to use within a fraction of a second. Metadata involves direction about technical and business processes, data rules and constraints, and logical and physical data structures. The metadata can easily find the data location and help to access the data faster. Speed is one of the important factors in the data world. The database has a systematic procedure to identify the data stored location.
There are different types of metadata, which are descriptive metadata, content classification metadata, administrative metadata, and usage metadata. The descriptive metadata is regarding the title, creator, content, source, and keyword. Content classification metadata involves data models, entities, the business glossary, controlled vocabularies, taxonomies, and ontology. Administrative metadata includes lineage, structure, audit and control, and preservation information. Usage metadata includes users, right, confidentiality, and sensitivity.
There is a certain level of structure in metadata and each of the levels having various procedures. The metadata helps to avoid data collision and faster data access. It helps to describe other data and working with particular instances of data easier. The roles of metadata are describing and understanding data, communicate and share, acquire and integrate, automate. Metadata assists in reporting and visualization and enables the transformation of operations allowing the business to grow. Data can move around the organization and be used in innovative ways. Examples of metadata are author, date created, date modified, and file size. Metadata is used for unstructured data such as images, video, web pages, spreadsheets, etc. The difference between Data and Metadata is that data is simply the content that can provide a description, measurement, or even a report on anything relative to an enterprise’s data assets. On the other hand, metadata describes the relevant information on the data, giving them more context for data users. so moreover it helps to increase the accuracy and the speed of the data transferred.
