3.3.2. Data Governance with Microsoft Purview

💡 First Principle: Governance answers the questions auditors and regulators ask: "Where did this data come from? Who touched it? What sensitive information does it contain? Can you prove compliance?" Microsoft Purview provides unified data governance across your entire data estate—on-premises, multi-cloud, and SaaS. Without governance, you're flying blind—unable to prove your data is trustworthy or compliant.

Core Capabilities

• Data Catalog: Automated discovery and classification of data assets across Azure, AWS, on-premises, and SaaS
• Data Lineage: Visual representation of how data flows from source to destination through transformations
• Data Classification: Automatic detection of sensitive data types (PII, financial, healthcare)
• Business Glossary: Central repository for business terms and definitions
• Data Insights: Analytics on data estate health and governance metrics

Data Lineage Explained

💡 First Principle: Data lineage answers the question "Where did this data come from, and where does it go?" This is critical for regulatory compliance, impact analysis, and debugging data quality issues.

Example Lineage Path:

SAP ERP (Source) → Azure Data Factory (Transform) → Azure Data Lake Gen2 (Store) → Azure Synapse (Model) → Power BI (Visualize)

⚠️ Exam Tip: If a question asks about "tracking data movement across systems" or "understanding data origin," the answer involves Microsoft Purview and data lineage.