Knowledge Catalog (formerly Dataplex) organizes distributed data into logical data lakes without data movement. Centralized governance, automatic metadata, and data quality monitoring.
What is Knowledge Catalog?
Knowledge Catalog is a data fabric service that organizes data across Cloud Storage and BigQuery into logical structures. Instead of copying data into a central data lake, the service creates virtual views over distributed data sources. Until April 2026, the product was called Dataplex, and later Dataplex Universal Catalog; the underlying technology and APIs are unaffected by the rename.
The service provides automatic metadata discovery, data quality checks, and centralized governance policies, and is closely integrated with the catalog and search capabilities that were previously marketed as a standalone Data Catalog.
Concepts
Lake
Logical container for related data. Typically per business unit or project.
Zone
Grouping by processing stage:
- Raw Zone: Raw data without transformation
- Curated Zone: Cleansed, structured data
Asset
The actual data: Cloud Storage buckets or BigQuery datasets. Assets are assigned to zones.
Lake: Customer Analytics
├── Zone: Raw
│ ├── Asset: gs://raw-events (Cloud Storage)
│ └── Asset: gs://raw-transactions
└── Zone: Curated
├── Asset: bq://project.curated.events (BigQuery)
└── Asset: bq://project.curated.customersCore Features
- Virtual organization: Data stays where it is
- Auto discovery: Schema and statistics captured automatically
- Data quality: Define rules and check automatically
- Central policies: IAM policies at lake level
- Catalog integration: All metadata searchable
Typical Use Cases
Data Lake Management
Organize hundreds of storage buckets and BigQuery datasets into logical lakes. Teams find data without knowing where it physically resides.
Data Quality Monitoring
Define quality rules (no null values in key fields, valid date formats) and check automatically on schedule. Alerts on violations.
Cross-Team Governance
Centralized policies for data access across multiple teams. Data owners define who can access which zones.
Automatic Documentation
The service automatically captures schemas, statistics, and samples. Teams understand data without manual documentation.
Benefits
- No data copying: Virtual organization
- Automatic: Discovery and profiling without manual effort
- Unified: Single view of Cloud Storage and BigQuery
- Governance: Centralized policies and data quality
Integration with innFactory
As a certified Google Cloud partner, innFactory supports you with Knowledge Catalog: data lake design, data quality strategies, and governance framework implementation.
Typical Use Cases
Technical Specifications
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Knowledge Catalog (formerly Dataplex)?
Knowledge Catalog is Google's data fabric and governance service that organizes distributed data into logical lakes without moving it. It provides centralized governance, automatic metadata discovery, and data quality checks across Cloud Storage and BigQuery. The service was called Dataplex, and later Dataplex Universal Catalog, until April 2026.
What's the difference between the Lakes/Zones features and pure metadata search?
Metadata search and tagging (formerly Data Catalog) are now part of Knowledge Catalog. In addition, Knowledge Catalog's Lakes, Zones, and Assets provide logical data organization plus data quality checks and centralized policies that go beyond pure metadata search.
What are Lakes, Zones, and Assets?
A Lake is a logical container for related data (e.g., per business unit). Zones group assets by processing stage (Raw, Curated). Assets are the actual data in Cloud Storage buckets or BigQuery datasets. This structure remains technically unchanged after the rename to Knowledge Catalog.
How does data quality work in Knowledge Catalog?
Data quality rules (null values, formats, ranges, uniqueness) are defined and checked automatically on a schedule. Results appear in the catalog and can trigger alerts; rule suggestions are based on automatic profiling of the data.
What does Knowledge Catalog cost?
Billing is based on Compute Units (CU) for discovery, quality scans, and processing. Discovery tends to be less expensive; quality scans on large datasets can be more costly. Google Cloud's current pricing page is authoritative for exact quotas and prices.
Do I need to change my existing Dataplex configuration after the rename?
No. The rename to Knowledge Catalog only affects the product name; API endpoints, `gcloud dataplex` commands, and client libraries remain unchanged, so existing lakes, zones, and assets continue to run without migration.
Note: All product information on this page has been compiled with care, but is provided without guarantee and may be outdated or incomplete. Cloud services evolve rapidly — features, pricing, SLAs, and availability change frequently. Authoritative and up-to-date information can only be found on the official product page of Google Cloud (official documentation). This page does not represent an offer by Google Cloud.
