Intended Audience for this Guide

All Users

About Our Service

Quollio Data Intelligence Cloud (QDIC)

This refers to the enterprise metadata management solution service provided by our company (Quollio Technologies Inc.). The abbreviation is QDIC, and on this documentation site, we use "QDIC" to refer to the service.

QDIC mainly provides the following functions:

• Metadata management via a data catalog, and management and operation of business metadata
• Visualization of data lineage and data quality
• Support for systematizing data governance through automation of operations and workflows
• Integration of technical metadata from services managed by the user organization via connectors

QDIC is provided as SaaS (Software as a Service) via the Internet from a logically separated, dedicated area (referred to as a "tenant") assigned to the user organization in a cloud environment managed by our company. Connectors are deployed in the user organization's cloud or on-premises environment and are managed by the user organization's administrators or environment operators.

Service Structure - Overall Overview and Data Flow

The following diagram shows the flow of metadata reflection from the user organization's services to the tenant. It also shows QDIC users and their role classifications.

Service Structure - Functions Provided from the Tenant

We provide the following functions from the tenant.

Catalog

This refers to the area where metadata within the user organization is registered. Management of metadata registered in the catalog is performed by administrators or operators.

Workspace

This is the user interface (screen) where users can reference the catalog and operators can perform maintenance such as updating metadata registered in the catalog. It is accessed from the user's PC web browser.

Administrators or operators also manage tenant settings from the workspace.

Connectors are programs provided by our company but are not deployed in the tenant.

Service Structure - Functions Operated by the User Organization

Connector

This is a program that acquires metadata from products or services (such as data warehouses, business intelligence, etc.) managed by the user organization and reflects it in the catalog. The types of connectors are as follows:

• Agent built for each service in the AWS VPC managed by the user organization
• Scanner built in the cloud computing environment or on-premises environment managed by the user organization

Connectors acquire technical metadata from services and reflect it in the catalog. For some services, they also acquire lineage and statistical information (described later) and reflect it in the catalog.

Building the connector's operating environment and managing the operation of the connector are performed by the user organization's administrators or environment operators. (Although the connector is a program provided by our company, it is not deployed in the tenant, and our company does not perform operation or management.)

User Classification by Role

In QDIC, users are classified by role. Roles are set for the user group to which the user belongs. For details, please refer to the following: Roles of Each User

Citizen User

This is a general term for users who use the catalog in principle, and specifically, it is classified into three roles: contributor, viewer, and guest viewer. Users explore and reference assets and metadata from the catalog.

Users are also referred to as citizen users.

Controller

This is a general term for users who are responsible for the operational management of assets and metadata and support administrators, and specifically, it is classified into three roles: data steward, assistant data steward, and developer. They are also responsible for responding to inquiries from users regarding the catalog.

Controllers are also called control users.

Administrator

This is a user who can perform all operations on the catalog and all tenant setting operations.

Administrators are also called governance users.

Environment Operator

This is a user who builds the connector in the user organization's environment or manages the operation of the connector. Since they are not registered as users in the tenant, there is no corresponding role name in QDIC, but it is assumed that a user with an administrator role will also serve as an environment operator. If a person who is not a QDIC user serves as an environment operator, they will work together with the administrator to maintain the connector and its operating environment.

Information Accessible from Workspace

The following diagram shows the main information in the catalog. Users reference this information from the workspace. (Custom categories are not components of the catalog, but for convenience, they are shown within the catalog.)

Service

The source of assets described below is called a service, and refers to products or services supported by QDIC. For example, if the data source is a data warehouse service from Snowflake, the service name will be Snowflake, and when you log in to the workspace, it will be displayed on the home screen along with the total number of assets.

A service consists of one or more data sources based on connection source hosts or data warehouses.

Asset

This refers to objects managed in the catalog. Metadata that shows the logical structure of data defined in the user organization's services—such as schemas, tables, columns, dashboards, sheets, etc.—corresponds to assets.

Metadata

This is information about assets. In addition to technical metadata obtained from the user organization’s services, it also includes detailed metadata (such as summary, owner, creation date, update date, etc.) updated by operators using QDIC functions, as well as business metadata updated using lineage, statistical information, and custom properties (described later).

Property

These are attribute information of assets, and refer to custom properties where users can independently define attributes and set values according to their needs. Properties are also a type of metadata.

Lineage

This is metadata that shows genealogical information tracking the flow and transformation of data between assets, and can be checked by referencing assets from the catalog. It visualizes upstream and downstream relationships, such as which tables a view was generated from, or which reports use a table or view. In the previous diagram, the bold blue lines in the catalog correspond to lineage.

Statistical Information

This is metadata that shows characteristics and trends of data calculated by statistical computation, and can be checked by referencing assets from the catalog. Statistical information is used as one basis for data analysis and decision-making. It is also used for checking data quality, such as detecting outliers from history.

Tag

These are labels used to classify and organize assets. Tags are grouped and have a parent-child hierarchy. Tags are also a type of metadata.

Custom Category

This refers to groups of assets organized based on the tags assigned to them. When users access custom categories from the workspace, they can collectively access groups of assets according to the classifications defined by operators.