Enterprise Metadata Management System

Architecture Views

22 views, in reading order. Every view ships three ways: an HTML page, an SVG that re-opens in diagrams.net fully editable, and draw.io source.

A metadata platform architected as a connected knowledge layer rather than a database of table descriptions. Read it in six acts: what sits inside the boundary, how the parts fit, what is stored and who owns it, what happens at runtime, how it is operated, and why it is safe. The load-bearing decisions are the canonical model in view 07, the system-of-record split in view 08, the precedence ladder in views 09 and 10, and the activation loop in view 19.

Context and scope

What the platform is accountable for, who it serves, and the three things it deliberately refuses to do.

01 System Context Who depends on the platform, what it harvests from, and what it pushes back out. HTML page SVG draw.io

02 High-Level Architecture The six stages a piece of metadata passes through, from a source system to a person who trusts it. HTML page SVG draw.io

Structure

The parts, the layering rule between them, and the integration surface in both directions.

03 Layered Architecture The dependency rule: which layer is allowed to call which, and where the cross-cutting concerns sit. HTML page SVG draw.io

04 Container Architecture The deployable units, grouped by responsibility, and the calls that cross between them. HTML page SVG draw.io

05 Integration Architecture Every interface in and out, and the rule that keeps the platform from becoming another silo. HTML page SVG draw.io

06 Connector Coverage What each class of source can actually give up, and where the honest gaps are. HTML page SVG draw.io

Data

The canonical model, where authoritative metadata lives, and how a change reaches every projection.

07 Canonical Metadata Model What counts as an asset, how it relates to people, terms, policy and quality, and how it is extended. HTML page SVG draw.io

08 Storage Architecture Which store is authoritative, which stores are disposable, and what that split buys. HTML page SVG draw.io

09 Metadata Flow and Precedence The path from capture to activation, and the rule applied when two systems disagree. HTML page SVG draw.io

Runtime

What actually happens when metadata is harvested, searched, curated and found to have drifted.

10 Harvest and Conflict Resolution One incremental run end to end, including the case where the source contradicts a steward. HTML page SVG draw.io

11 Lineage Construction How four kinds of evidence become column-level edges, and what happens when they cannot. HTML page SVG draw.io

12 Search and Discovery The read path a data consumer actually experiences, and where entitlements are applied. HTML page SVG draw.io

13 Stewardship Workflows How a gap becomes an owned, reviewed, published definition — through the four personas in turn. HTML page SVG draw.io

14 Drift and Impact Analysis What happens between a column being dropped upstream and the report that breaks because of it. HTML page SVG draw.io

15 Data Quality Metadata How quality results reach the catalog without the catalog becoming a quality engine. HTML page SVG draw.io

Operations

How the platform is deployed, extended, watched, and kept from decaying into a stale catalog.

16 Deployment and Infrastructure Where it runs, how it survives an availability-zone loss, and how it reaches isolated networks. HTML page SVG draw.io

17 Delivery and Extensibility How a new connector, a new asset type and a platform change each reach production. HTML page SVG draw.io

18 Observability and Operations What is measured, and which signals are allowed to wake somebody up. HTML page SVG draw.io

19 The Active Metadata Loop The cycle that has to close for this to be a governance platform rather than a search index. HTML page SVG draw.io

Assurance

Where the blast radius is, how every governance action is proved, and what is known to be able to fail.

20 Security Trust Zones Where the boundaries are, what authenticates at each crossing, and why metadata is treated as sensitive. HTML page SVG draw.io

21 Authorisation and Audit One governance action end to end, proving that both permitted and denied outcomes are recorded. HTML page SVG draw.io

22 Failure Modes and Recovery What is allowed to fail, what is not, and the risks that are being accepted with their eyes open. HTML page SVG draw.io

Open svg/<view>.svg or drawio/<view>.drawio in draw.io Desktop or at app.diagrams.net to edit. The SVG carries the diagram inside it, so it is both the picture and the source. This folder is self-contained — copy it whole and every link still resolves.