Top 10 metadata search engines that could save your (business) life

IBM’s Infosphere Metadata Workbench is used by business and data analysts in order to explore and analyse relationships between information assets and metadata repository. Its efficiency comes from its ability to provide impact analysis with an overview of the effects made by changes to information management environments.

Tired of having to sift BI through various silos in order to only end up with inconsistent data? Octopai has the solution. As a metadata search engine, Octopai automatically analyses cross-platform metadata and enables organisations to find and track their data through every step. By putting all of your data on one system, Octopai prevents the problem of inconsistent data.

Collibra’s Data Dictionary allows users to document their metadata and how it is used. Through its sleek visualisation tools, Collibra enables you to see data flows and traceability clearly for improved data quality.

Talend Metadata Manager provides the user with a bird’s eye view of data flows and one-click impact analysis. This improved data accessibility allows you to have a full understanding of all of your metadata. Connecting all of your metadata through each platform, Talend Metadata Manager allows you manage risk and maintain compliance.

Alex Solutions doesn’t just provide a built-in workflow feature that allows users to initiate, manage and track a variety of data-centric actions; it allows for so much more. With an inbuilt business glossary, Alex Solutions allows users to define and maintain key business terms and link them to data assets, processes and outputs. New to metadata management? Alex Solutions is the ideal platform for the uninitiated.

MTNA’s Sledgehammer reads and extracts metadata from Stata, SPSS, SAS syntax, DDI+ASCII, Stat/Transfer scripts, SQL tables, and more. This is one powerful metadata tool and it’s not for the faint-hearted! Sledgehammer converts data and core metadata from proprietary file formats and databases into an open-data file format. It then transforms the data into text files that can be read by any application. Wow!

Using powerful analytics, Tableau puts data at the centre of your business. By integrating into systems that you already have in place, Tableau is able to manoeuvre between data  swiftly and with efficiency. Tableau's focus on security allows users to safely share interactive dashboards through one coherent and air-tight platform.

As a web based application, DataONE Search is lightweight. It organises data chronologically, by file type and presents to you only the most recent version of each file. As a result, it organises data with maximum efficiency and prevents users from having to sift through unnecessary data. DataONE Search is helpful, efficient and easy to use.

Designed primarily for biomedical researchers and analysts, CEDAR is changing the medical landscape. CEDAR contains a user-friendly interface that enables researchers to create and use better metadata. By enabling resources to be more accessible, CEDAR will surely help biomedical research to make advancements at a rapid rate.

By cross-referencing between search engines, social media and news-sources, Sputtr is a simple and easy to use metadata search engine. It's sleek and easy to use and is perfect for the casual user who wants to use metadata to their advantage.