(upbeat techno music) >> Collibra is a company that was founded in 2008 right before the so-called modern big data era kicked into high gear. The company was one of the first to focus its business on data governance. Now, historically, data governance and data quality initiatives, they were back office functions, and they were largely confined to regulated industries that had to comply with public policy mandates. But as the cloud went mainstream the tech giants showed us how valuable data could become, and the value proposition for data quality and trust, it evolved from primarily a compliance driven issue, to becoming a linchpin of competitive advantage. But, data in the decade of the 2010s was largely about getting the technology to work. You had these highly centralized technical teams that were formed and they had hyper-specialized skills, to develop data architectures and processes, to serve the myriad data needs of organizations. And it resulted in a lot of frustration, with data initiatives for most organizations, that didn't have the resources of the cloud guys and the social media giants, to really attack their data problems and turn data into gold. This is why today, for example, there's quite a bit of momentum to re-thinking monolithic data architectures. You see, you hear about initiatives like Data Mesh and the idea of data as a product. They're gaining traction as a way to better serve the the data needs of decentralized business users. You hear a lot about data democratization. So these decentralization efforts around data, they're great, but they create a new set of problems. Specifically, how do you deliver, like a self-service infrastructure to business users and domain experts? Now the cloud is definitely helping with that but also, how do you automate governance? This becomes especially tricky as protecting data privacy has become more and more important. In other words, while it's enticing to experiment, and run fast and loose with data initiatives, kind of like the Wild West, to find new veins of gold, it has to be done responsibly. As such, the idea of data governance has had to evolve to become more automated and intelligent. Governance and data lineage is still fundamental to ensuring trust as data. It moves like water through an organization. No one is going to use data that is entrusted. Metadata has become increasingly important for data discovery and data classification. As data flows through an organization, the continuously ability to check for data flaws and automating that data quality, they become a functional requirement of any modern data management platform. And finally, data privacy has become a critical adjacency to cyber security. So you can see how data governance has evolved into a much richer set of capabilities than it was 10 or 15 years ago. Hello and welcome to theCUBE's coverage of Data Citizens made possible by Collibra, a leader in so-called Data intelligence and the host of Data Citizens 2022, which is taking place in San Diego. My name is Dave Vellante and I'm one of the hosts of our program which is running in parallel to Data Citizens. Now at theCUBE we like to say we extract the signal from the noise, and over the next couple of days we're going to feature some of the themes from the keynote speakers at Data Citizens, and we'll hear from several of the executives. Felix Van de Maele, who is the co-founder and CEO of Collibra, will join us. Along with one of the other founders of Collibra, Stan Christiaens, who's going to join my colleague Lisa Martin. I'm going to also sit down with Laura Sellers, she's the Chief Product Officer at Collibra. We'll talk about some of the the announcements and innovations they're making at the event, and then we'll dig in further to data quality with Kirk Haslbeck. He's the Vice President of Data Quality at Collibra. He's an amazingly smart dude who founded Owl DQ, a company that he sold to Collibra last year. Now, many companies they didn't make it through the Hadoop era, you know they missed the industry waves and they became driftwood. Collibra, on the other hand, has evolved its business, they've leveraged the cloud, expanded its product portfolio and leaned in heavily to some major partnerships with cloud providers as well as receiving a strategic investment from Snowflake, earlier this year. So, it's a really interesting story that we're thrilled to be sharing with you. Thanks for watching and I hope you enjoy the program. (upbeat rock music) Last year theCUBE covered Data Citizens, Collibra's customer event, and the premise that we put forth prior to that event was that despite all the innovation that's gone on over the last decade or more with data, you know starting with the Hadoop movement, we had Data lakes, we had Spark, the ascendancy of programming languages like Python, the introduction of frameworks like Tensorflow, the rise of AI, Low Code, No Code, et cetera. Businesses still find it's too difficult to get more value from their data initiatives, and we said at the time, you know maybe it's time to rethink data innovation. While a lot of the effort has been focused on, you more efficiently storing and processing data, perhaps more energy needs to go into thinking about the people and the process side of the equation. Meaning, making it easier for domain experts to both gain insights from data, trust the data, and begin to use that data in new ways, fueling data products, monetization, and insights. Data Citizens 2022 is back and we're pleased to have Felix Van de Maele who is the founder and CEO of Collibra. He's on theCUBE. We're excited to have you Felix. Good to see you again. >> Likewise Dave. Thanks for having me again. >> You bet. All right, we're going to get the update from Felix on the current data landscape, how he sees it why data intelligence is more important now than ever, and get current on what Collibra has been up to over the past year, and what's changed since Data citizens 2021, and we may even touch on some of the product news. So Felix, we're living in a very different world today with businesses and consumers. They're struggling with things like supply chains, uncertain economic trends and we're not just snapping back to the 2010s, that's clear, and that's really true as well in the world of data. So what's different in your mind, in the data landscape of the 2020s, from the previous decade, and what challenges does that bring for your customers? >> Yeah, absolutely, and and I think you said it well, Dave and the intro that, that rising complexity and fragmentation, in the broader data landscape, that hasn't gotten any better over the last couple of years. When when we talk to our customers, that level of fragmentation, the complexity, how do we find data that we can trust, that we know we can use, has only gotten more more difficult. So that trend that's continuing, I think what is changing is that trend has become much more acute. Well, the other thing we've seen over the last couple of years is that the level of scrutiny that organizations are under, respect to data, as data becomes more mission critical, as data becomes more impactful than important, the level of scrutiny with respect to privacy, security, regulatory compliance, as only increasing as well. Which again, is really difficult in this environment of continuous innovation, continuous change, continuous growing complexity, and fragmentation. So, it's become much more acute. And to your earlier point, we do live in a different world and and the past couple of years we could probably just kind of brute force it, right? We could focus on, on the top line, there was enough kind of investments to be, to be had. I think nowadays organizations are focused or are, are, are are, are, are in a very different environment where there's much more focus on cost control, productivity, efficiency, how do we truly get the value from that data? So again, I think it just another incentive for organization to now truly look at data and to scale with data, not just from a a technology and infrastructure perspective, but how do we actually scale data from an organizational perspective, right? You said at the, the people and process, how do we do that at scale? And that's only, only, only becoming much more important, and we do believe that the, the economic environment that we find ourselves in today is going to be catalyst for organizations to really take that more seriously if, if, if you will, than they maybe have in the have in the past. >> You know, I don't know when you guys founded Collibra, if you had a sense as to how complicated it was going to get, but you've been on a mission to really address these problems from the beginning. How would you describe your, your, your mission and what are you doing to address these challenges? >> Yeah, absolutely. We, we started Collibra in 2008. So, in some sense and the, the last kind of financial crisis and that was really the, the start of Collibra, where we found product market fit, working with large financial institutions to help them cope with the increasing compliance requirements that they were faced with because of the, of the financial crisis. And kind of here we are again, in a very different environment of course 15 years, almost 15 years later, but data only becoming more important. But our mission to deliver trusted data for every user, every use case and across every source, frankly, has only become more important. So, what has been an incredible journey over the last 14, 15 years, I think we're still relatively early in our mission to again, be able to provide everyone, and that's why we call it Data Citizens, we truly believe that everyone in the organization should be able to use trusted data in an easy, easy matter. That mission is is only becoming more important, more relevant. We definitely have a lot more work ahead of us because we still relatively early in that, in that journey. >> Well that's interesting, because you know, in my observation it takes 7 to 10 years to actually build a company, and then the fact that you're still in the early days is kind of interesting. I mean, you, Collibra's had a good 12 months or so since we last spoke at Data Citizens. Give us the latest update on your business. What do people need to know about your current momentum? >> Yeah, absolutely. Again, there's a lot of tailwind organizations that are only maturing their data practices and we've seen that kind of transform or influence a lot of our business growth that we've seen, broader adoption of the platform. We work at some of the largest organizations in the world with its Adobe, Heineken, Bank of America and many more. We have now over 600 enterprise customers, all industry leaders and every single vertical. So it's, it's really exciting to see that and continue to partner with those organizations. On the partnership side, again, a lot of momentum in the org in the, in the market with some of the cloud partners like Google, Amazon, Snowflake, Data Breaks, and and others, right? As those kind of new modern data infrastructures, modern data architectures, are definitely all moving to the cloud. A great opportunity for us, our partners, and of course our customers, to help them kind of transition to the cloud even faster. And so we see a lot of excitement and momentum there. We did an acquisition about 18 months ago around data quality, data observability, which we believe is an enormous opportunity. Of course data quality isn't new but I think there's a lot of reasons why we're so excited about quality and observability now. One, is around leveraging AI machine learning again to drive more automation. And a second is that those data pipelines, that are now being created in the cloud, in these modern data architecture, architectures, they've become mission critical. They've become real time. And so monitoring, observing those data pipelines continuously, has become absolutely critical so that they're really excited about, about that as well. And on the organizational side, I'm sure you've heard the term around kind of data mesh, something that's gaining a lot of momentum, rightfully so. It's really the type of governance that we always believed in. Federated, focused on domains, giving a lot of ownership to different teams. I think that's the way to scale data organizations, and so that aligns really well with our vision and from a product perspective, we've seen a lot of momentum with our customers there as well. >> Yeah, you know, a couple things there. I mean, the acquisition of OwlDQ, you know Kirk Haslbeck and, and their team. It's interesting, you know the whole data quality used to be this back office function and and really confined to highly regulated industries. It's come to the front office, it's top of mind for Chief Data Officers. Data mesh, you mentioned you guys are a connective tissue for all these different nodes on the data mesh. That's key. And of course we see you at all the shows. You're, you're a critical part of many ecosystems and you're developing your own ecosystem. So, let's chat a little bit about the, the products. We're going to go deeper into products later on, at Data Citizens 22, but we know you're debuting some, some new innovations, you know, whether it's, you know, the the under the covers in security, sort of making data more accessible for people, just dealing with workflows and processes, as you talked about earlier. Tell us a little bit about what you're introducing. >> Yeah, absolutely. We we're super excited, a ton of innovation. And if we think about the big theme and like, like I said, we're still relatively early in this, in this journey towards kind of that mission of data intelligence that really bolts and compelling mission. Either customers are still start, are just starting on that, on that journey. We want to make it as easy as possible for the, for organization to actually get started, because we know that's important that they do. And for our organization and customers, that have been with us for some time, there's still a tremendous amount of opportunity to kind of expand the platform further. And again to make it easier for, really to, to accomplish that mission and vision around that Data Citizen, that everyone has access to trustworthy data in a very easy, easy way. So that's really the theme of a lot of the innovation that we're driving, a lot of kind of ease of adoption, ease of use, but also then, how do we make sure that, as clear becomes this kind of mission critical enterprise platform, from a security performance, architecture scale supportability, that we're truly able to deliver that kind of an enterprise mission critical platform. And so that's the big theme. From an innovation perspective, from a product perspective, a lot of new innovation that we're really excited about. A couple of highlights. One, is around data marketplace. Again, a lot of our customers have plans in that direction, How to make it easy? How do we make How do we make available to true kind of shopping experience? So that anybody in the organization can, in a very easy search first way, find the right data product, find the right dataset, that they can then consume. Usage analytics, how do you, how do we help organizations drive adoption? Tell them where they're working really well and where they have opportunities. Homepages again to, to make things easy for, for people, for anyone in your organization, to kind of get started with Collibra. You mentioned Workflow Designer, again, we have a very powerful enterprise platform, one of our key differentiators is the ability to really drive a lot of automation through workflows. And now we provided a, a new Low-Code, No-Code kind of workflow designer experience. So, so really customers can take it to the next level. There's a lot more new product around Collibra protect, which in partnership with Snowflake, which has been a strategic investor in Collibra, focused on how do we make access governance easier? How do we, how do we, how are we able to make sure that as you move to the cloud, things like access management, masking around sensitive data, PIA data, is managed as a much more effective, effective rate. Really excited about that product. There's more around data quality. Again, how do we, how do we get that deployed as easily, and quickly, and widely as we can? Moving that to the cloud has been a big part of our strategy. So, we launch our data quality cloud product, as well as making use of those, those native compute capabilities and platforms, like Snowflake, Databricks, Google, Amazon, and others. And so we are bettering a capability, a capability that we call push down, so we're actually pushing down the computer and data quality, to monitoring into the underlying platform, which again from a scale performance and ease of use perspective, is going to make a massive difference. And then more broadly, we talked a little bit about the ecosystem. Again, integrations, we talk about being able to connect to every source. Integrations are absolutely critical, and we're really excited to deliver new integrations with Snowflake, Azure and Google Cloud storage as well. So that's a lot coming out, the team has been work, at work really hard, and we are really really excited about what we are coming, what we're bringing to market. >> Yeah, a lot going on there. I wonder if you could give us your, your closing thoughts. I mean, you you talked about, you know, the marketplace, you know you think about Data Mesh, you think of data as product, one of the key principles, you think about monetization. This is really different than what we've been used to in data, which is just getting the technology to work has been, been so hard. So, how do you see sort of the future and, you know give us the, your closing thoughts please? >> Yeah, absolutely. And, and I think we we're really at a pivotal moment and I think you said it well. We, we all know the constraint and the challenges with data, how to actually do data at scale. And while we've seen a ton of innovation on the infrastructure side, we fundamentally believe that just getting a faster database is important, but it's not going to fully solve the challenges and truly kind of deliver on the opportunity. And that's why now is really the time to, deliver this data intelligence vision, this data intelligence platform. We are still early, making it as easy as we can, as kind of our, as our mission. And so I'm really, really excited to see what we, what we are going to, how the marks are going to evolve over the next, next few quarters and years. I think the trend is clearly there. We talked about Data Mesh, this kind of federated approach focus on data products, is just another signal that we believe, that a lot of our organization are now at the time, they're understanding need to go beyond just the technology. I really, really think about how to actually scale data as a business function, just like we've done with IT, with HR, with sales and marketing, with finance. That's how we need to think about data. I think now is the time, given the economic environment that we are in, much more focus on control, much more focus on productivity, efficiency, and now is the time we need to look beyond just the technology and infrastructure to think of how to scale data, how to manage data at scale. >> Yeah, it's a new era. The next 10 years of data won't be like the last, as I always say. Felix, thanks so much. Good luck in, in San Diego. I know you're going to crush it out there. >> Thank you Dave. >> Yeah, it's a great spot for an in-person event and and of course the content post-event is going to be available at collibra.com and you can of course catch theCUBE coverage at theCUBE.net and all the news at siliconangle.com. This is Dave Vellante for theCUBE, your leader in enterprise and emerging tech coverage. (upbeat techno music)

>>From around the globe. It's the Cube covering data citizens 21 brought to you by culebra. Hello everyone john walls here as we continue our cube conversations here as part of Data citizens 21 the conference ongoing caliber at the heart of that really at the heart of data these days and helping companies and corporations make sense. All of those data chaos that they're dealing with, trying to provide new insights, new analyses being a lot more efficient and effective with your data. That's what culebra is all about and their founder and their Chief data Citizen if you will stand christians joins us today and stan I love that title. Chief Data Citizen. What is that all about? What does that mean? >>Hey john thanks for having me over and hopefully we'll get to the point where the chief data citizen titlists cleaves to you. Thanks by the way for giving us the opportunity to speak a little bit about what we're doing with our Chief Data Citizen. Um we started the community, the company about 13 years ago, uh 2008 and over those years as a founder, I've worn many different hats from product presales to partnerships and a bunch of other things. But ultimately the company reaches a certain point, a certain size where systems and processes become absolutely necessary if you want to scale further for us. This is the moment in time when we said, okay, we probably need a data office right now ourselves, something that we've seen with many of our customers. So he said, okay, let me figure out how to lead our own data office and figure out how we can get value out of data using our own software at Clear Bright Self. And that's where it achieved. That a citizen role comes in on friday evening. We like to call that, drinking our own champagne monday morning, you know, eating our own dog food. But essentially um this is what we help our customers do build out the offices. So we're doing this ourselves now when we're very hands on. So there's a lot of things we're learning again, just like our customers do. And for me at culebra, this means that I'm responsible as achieved data citizen for our overall data strategy, which talks a lot about data products as well as our data infrastructure, which is needed to power data problems now because we're doing this in the company and also doing this in a way that is helpful to our customers. Were also figuring out how do we translate the learning that we have ourselves and give them back to our customers, to our partners, to the broader ecosystem as a whole. And that's why uh if you summarize the strategy, I like the sometimes refer to it as Data office 2025, it's 2025. What is the data office looked like by then? And we recommend to our customers also have that forward looking view just as well. So if I summarize the the answer a little bit it's very similar to achieve their officer role but because it has the external evangelization component helping other data leaders we like to refer to it as the chief data scientist. >>Yeah that that kind of uh you talk about evangelizing obviously with that that you're talking about certain kinds of responsibilities and obligations and when I think of citizenship in general I think about privileges and rights and about national citizenship. You're talking about data citizenship. So I assume that with that you're talking about appropriate behaviors and the most uh well defined behaviors and kind of keep it between the lanes basically. Is that is that how you look at being a data citizen. And if not how would you describe that to a client about being a data citizen? >>It's a very good point as a citizen. You have the rights and responsibilities and the same is exactly true for a day to citizens. For us, starting with what it is right for us. The data citizen is somebody who uses data to do their job. And we've purposely made that definition very broad because today we believe that everyone in some way uses data, do their job. You know, data universal. It's critical to business processes and its importance is only increasing and we want all the data citizens to have appropriate access to data and and the ability to do stuff with data but also to do that in the right way. And if you think about it, this is not just something that applies to you and your job but also extends beyond the workplace because as a data citizen, you're also a human being. Of course. So the way you do data at home with your friends and family, all of this becomes important as well. Uh and we like to think about it as informed privacy. Us data citizens who think about trust in data all the time because ultimately everybody's talking today about data as an asset and data is the new gold and the new oil and the new soil. And there is a ton of value uh data but it's not just organizations themselves to see this. It's also the bad actors out there were reading a lot more about data breaches for example. So ultimately there is no value without rescue. Uh so as the data citizen you can achieve value but you also have to think about how do I avoid these risks? And as an organization, if you manage to combine both of those, that's when you can get the maximum value out of data in a trusted manner. >>Yeah, I think this is pretty interesting approach that you've taken here because obviously there are processes with regard to data, right? I mean you know that's that's pretty clear but there are there's a culture that you're talking about here that not only are we going to have an operational plan for how we do this certain activity and how we're going to uh analyze here, input here action uh perform action on that whatever. But we're gonna have a mindset or an approach mentally that we want our company to embrace. So if you would walk me through that process a little bit in terms of creating that kind of culture which is very different then kind of the X's and oh's and the technical side of things. >>Yeah, that's I think where organizations face the biggest challenge because you know, maybe they're hiring the best, most unique data scientists in the world, but it's not about what that individual can do, right? It's about what the combination of data citizens across the organization can do. And I think there it starts first by thinking as an individual about universal goal Golden rule, treat others as you would want to be treated yourself right the way you would ethically use data at your job. Think about that. There's other people and other companies who you would want to do the same thing. Um now from our experience and our own data office at cordoba as well as what we see with our customers, a lot of that personal responsibility, which is where culture starts, starts with data literacy and you know, we talked a little bit about Planet Rock and small statues in brussels Belgium where I'm from. But essentially um here we speak a couple of languages in Belgium and for organizations for individuals, Data literacy is very similar. You know, you're able to read and write, which are pretty essential for any job today. And so we want all data citizens to also be able to speak and read and write data fluently if I if I can express it this way. And one of the key ways of getting that done and establishing that culture around data uh is lies with the one who leads data in the organization, the Chief Petty Officer or however the roll is called. They play a very important role in this. Um, the comparison maybe that I always make there is think about other assets in your organization. You know, you're you're organized for the money asset for the talent assets with HR and a bunch of other assets. So let's talk about the money asset for a little bit, right? You have a finance department, you have a chief financial officer. And obviously their responsibility is around managing that money asset, but it's also around making others in the organization think about that money asset and they do that through established processes and responsibilities like budgeting and planning, but also ultimately to the individual where, you know, through expense sheets that we all off so much they make you think about money. So if the CFO makes everyone in the company thinks about think about money, that data officer or the data lead has to think has to make everyone think uh in the company about data as a as it just as well and and those rights those responsibilities um in that culture, they also change right today. They're set this and this way because of privacy and policy X. And Y. And Z. But tomorrow for example as with the european union's new regulation around the eye, there's a bunch of new responsibilities you have to think about. >>Mhm. You know you mentioned security and about value and risk which is certainly um they are part and parcel right? If I have something important, I gotta protect it because somebody else might want to um to create some damage, some harm uh and and steal my value basically. Well that's what's happening as you point out in the data world these days. So so what kind of work are you doing in that regard in terms of reinforcing the importance of security, culture, privacy culture, you know this kind of protective culture within an organization so that everybody fully understands the risks. But also the huge upsides if you do enforce this responsibility and these good behaviors that that obviously the company can gain from and then provide value to their client base. So how do you reinforce that within your clients to spread that culture if you will within their organizations? >>Um spreading a culture is not always an easy thing. Um especially a lot of organizations think about the value around data but to your point, not always about the risks that come associated with it sometimes just because they don't know about it yet. Right? There's new architecture is that come into play like the clouds and that comes with a whole bunch of new risk. That's why one of the things that we recommend always to our uh customers and to data officers and our customers organizations is that next to establishing that that data literacy, for example, and working on data products is that they also partners strongly with other leaders in their organization. On the one hand, for example, the legal uh folks, where typically you find the aspects around privacy and on the other hand, um the information security folks, because if you're building up a sort of map of your data, look at it like a castle, right that you're trying to protect. Uh if you don't have a map of your castle with the strong points and weak points and you know, where people can build, dig a hole under your wall or what have you, then it's very hard to defend. So you have to be able to get a map of your data. A data map if you will know what data is out there with being used by and and why and how and then you want to prioritize that data which is the most important, what are the most important uses and put the appropriate protections and controls in place. Um and it's fundamental that you do that together with your legal and information security partners because you may have as a data leader you may have the data module data expertise, but there's a bunch of other things that come into play when you're trying to protect, not just the data but really your company on its data as a whole. >>You know you were talking about 2025 a little bit ago and I think good for you. That's quite a crystal ball that you have you know looking uh with the headlights that far down the road. But I know you have to be you know that kind of progressive thinking is very important. What do you see in the long term for number one? You're you're kind of position as a chief data citizen if you will. And then the role of the chief data officer which you think is kind of migrating toward that citizenship if you will. So maybe put on those long term vision uh goggles of yours again and and tell me what do you see as far as these evolving roles and and these new responsibilities for people who are ceos these days? >>Um well 2025 is closer than we think right? And obviously uh my crystal ball is as Fuzzy as everyone else's but there's a few things that trends that you can easily identify and that we've seen by doing this for so long at culebra. Um and one is the push around data I think last year. Um the years 2020, 2020 words uh sort of Covid became the executive director of digitalization forced everyone to think more about digital. And I expect that to continue. Right. So that's an important aspect. The second important aspect that I expect to continue for the next couple of years, easily. 2025 is the whole movement to the cloud. So those cloud native architecture to become important as well as the, you know, preparing your data around and preparing your false, he's around it, et cetera. I also expect that privacy regulations will continue to increase as well as the need to protect your data assets. Um And I expect that a lot of achieved that officers will also be very busy building out those data products. So if you if you think that that trend then okay, data products are getting more important for t data officers, then um data quality is something that's increasingly important today to get right otherwise becomes a garbage in garbage out kind of situation where your data products are being fed bad food and ultimately their their outcomes are very tricky. So for us, for the chief data officers, Um I think there was about one of them in 2002. Um and then in 2019 ISH, let's say there were around 10,000. So there's there's plenty of upside to go for the chief data officers, there's plenty of roles like that needed across the world. Um and they've also evolved in in responsibility and I expect that their position, you know, it it is really a sea level position today in most organizations expect that that trend will also to continue to grow. But ultimately, those achieved that officers have to think about the business, right? Not just the defensive and offensive positions around data like policies and regulations, but also the support for businesses who are today shifting very fast and we'll continue to uh to digital. So those Tv officers will be seen as heroes, especially when they can build out a factory of data products that really supports the business. Um, but at the same time, they have to figure out how to um reach and always branch to their technical counterparts because you cannot build that factory of data products in my mind, at least without the proper infrastructure. And that's where your technical teams come in. And then obviously the partnerships with your video and information security folks, of course. >>Well heroes. Everybody wants to be the hero. And I know that uh you painted a pretty clear path right now as far as the Chief data officer is concerned and their importance and the value to companies down the road stan. We thank you very much for the time today and for the insight and wish you continued success at the conference. Thank you very much. >>Thank you very much. Have a nice day healthy. >>Thank you very much Dan Christians joining us talking about chief data citizenship if you will as part of data citizens 21. The conference being put on by caliber. I'm John Wall's thanks for joining us here on the Cube. >>Mhm.

>> - From around the globe, it's the cube covering data citizens, 21 brought to you by Collibra. >> Hello, everyone, John Walls here, As we continue our cube conversations here as part of data citizens, 21, the conference ongoing. Collibra at the heart of that, really at the heart of data these days and helping companies and corporations make sense. Although this data chaos that they're dealing with, trying to provide new insights, new analysis being a lot more efficient and effective with your data. That's what Collibra is all about. And their founder and their chief data citizen, if you will, Stan Christiaens joins us today. And Stan, I love that title, chief data citizen. What does that all about? What does that mean? >> Hey John, thanks for having me over. And hopefully we'll get to a point where the chief data citizen Titelist cleaves to you. Thanks by the way, for giving us the opportunity to speak a little bit about what we're doing with our chief data citizen. We started the company about 13 years ago, 2008. And over those years, as a founder I've worn many different hats from product to pre-sales to partnerships and a bunch of obvious things. But ultimately the company reaches a certain point a certain size where systems and processes become absolutely necessary if you want to scale further. And for us, this is the moment in time where we said, okay we probably need a data office right now ourselves, something that we've seen with many of our customers. So we said, okay, let me figure out how to lead our own data office and figured out how we can get value out of data using our own software at Collibra itself. And that's where the chief data citizen role comes in. On Friday evening, we like to call that drinking our own champagne moment morning, either eating our own dog food but, essentially this is what we help our customers do, build out the data offices. So we're doing this ourselves now, when we're very hands-on. So there's a lot of things that we're learning, again just like our customers do. And for me, at Collibra, this means that I'm responsible as a chief data citizen for our overall data strategy, which talks a lot about data products, as well as our data infrastructure, which is needed to power data products. Now, because we're doing this in the company and also doing this in a way that is helpful to our customers. We're also figuring out how do we translate the learnings that we have ourselves and give them back to our customers, to our partners, to the broader ecosystem as a whole. And that's why if you summarize the strategy, I like to sometimes refer to it as data office 2025, it's 2025. What is the data office look like by then? And we recommend to our customers to also have that forward looking view just as well. So if I summarize the, the answer a little bit and it's fairly similar to achieve that officer role but, because it has the external evangelization component, helping other data leaders, we like to refer to it as the chief data citizens. >> Yeah, and that, that kind of, you talked about evangelizing, obviously with that, that you're talking about certain kinds of responsibilities and obligations. And I, when I think of citizenship in general I think about privileges and rights and you know, about national citizenship. You're talking about data citizenship, So I assume that with that you're talking about appropriate behaviors and the most well-defined behaviors, and kind of keeping it between the lanes basically. Is that, is that how you look at being a data citizen or, and if not, how would you describe that to a client about being a data citizen? >> It's a very good point, as a citizen you have rights and responsibilities, and the same is exactly true for a data citizen. For us, starting with what it is, right for us, A data citizen is somebody who uses data to do their job. And we've purposely made that definition very broad because today we believe that everyone in some way uses data to do their job. You know, data is universal. It's critical to business processes and it's importance is only increasing. And we want all the data citizens to have appropriate access to data and the ability to do stuff with data but, also to do that in the right way. And if you think about it this is not just something that applies to you in your job but, also extends beyond the workplace because as a data citizen, you're also a human being, of course. So, the way you do data at home with your friends and family, all of this becomes important as well. And we like to think about it as informed privacy aware, data citizens should think about trust in data all the time, because ultimately everybody's talking today about data as an asset, and data is the new gold, and the new oil, and the new soil, and there is a ton of value in data but, as much as organizations themselves to see this, it's also the bad actors out there. We're reading a lot more about data breaches, for example. So, ultimately there's no value without risk. So, as a data citizen, you can achieve a value but, you also have to think about, how do I avoid these risks, and as an organization, if you manage to combine both of those, that's when you can get the maximum value out of data in a trusted manner. >> Yeah, I think this is pretty, an interesting approach that you've taken here because obviously there there are processes with regard to data, right? I mean, the, you know, that that's pretty clear but, there are also, there's a culture that you're talking about here that, that not only are we going to have an operational plan for how we do this certain activity and how we're going to analyze here, input here, action, or perform action on that, whatever but we're going to have a mindset or an approach mentally that we want our company to embrace. So, if you would walk me through that process a little bit in terms of creating that kind of culture, which is very different than kind of the X's and O's and the technical side of things. >> Yeah. That's I think when organizations face the biggest challenge, because, you know maybe they're hiding the best most unique data scientists in the world but, it's not about what that individual can do, right? It's about what the combination of data citizens across the organization can do. And I think it starts first by thinking as an individual about universal goal, golden rule, treat others as you would want to be treated yourself, right? The way you would ethically use data at your job. Think about that, There's other people at other companies, who you would want to do the same thing. Now, from our experience, in our own data office at Collibra, as well as what we see with our customers. A lot of that personal responsibility which is where culture starts, starts with data literacy. And, you know, we talked a little bit about Plymouth rock and the small statues in Brussels Belgium, where I'm from but, essentially here we speak a couple of languages in Belgium. And for organizations, for individuals data literacy is very similar. You know, you're able to read and write which are pretty essential for any job today. And so we want all data citizens to also be able to speak and read and write data fluently. If I, if I can express it this way. And one of the key ways of getting that done and establishing that culture around data, lies with the one who leads data in the organization, the chief data officer, or however the role is called. They play a very important role in this. In comparison, maybe that I always make there is think about other assets in your organization. You know, you're organized for the money assets, for the talent assets, with HR and a bunch of other assets. So let's talk about the, the money assets for a little bit, right? You have a finance department, you have a chief financial officer, and obviously their responsibility is around managing that money asset. But it's also around making others in the organization think about that money. And they do that through established processes and responsibilities like budgeting and planning but, also ultimately to the individual where, you know, through expense sheets that we all love so much, they make you think about money. So, if the CFO makes everyone in the company thinks about think about money, that data officer, or the data lead, has to think, has to make everyone think in the company about data assets, asset, just as well. And those rights, those responsibilities in that culture, they also change, right? Today, they're set this and this way because of privacy and policy X and Y and Z. But tomorrow, for example, as, as with the European union's new regulation around BI, there's a bunch of new responsibilities you'll have to think about. >> You mentioned security and about value and risk, which is certainly, they are part and parcel, right? If I have something important I've got to protect it because somebody else might want to, to create some damage, some harm and and steal my value, basically when that's, what's happening as you point out in the data world these days. So, so what kind of work are you doing in that regard in terms of reinforcing the importance of security culture, privacy culture, you know, this kind of protective culture within an organization so that everybody fully understands, you know, the risks but, also the huge upsides. If you do enforce this responsibility and these good behaviors that that obviously the company can gain from, and then provide value to their client base. So how do you reinforce that within your clients to spread that culture, if you will, within their organizations? >> Spreading a culture is not always an easy thing, And especially a lot of organizations think about the value around data, but to your point, not always about the risks that come associated with it. Sometimes just because they don't know about it yet, right, there's new architectures that come into play, like the clouds and that comes with a whole bunch of new risks. That, that's why one of the things that we recommend always to our customers and to data officers in our customer's organizations, is that next to establishing that, that data literacy, for example, and working on data products is that they also partner strongly with other leaders in their organization. On the one hand, for example, the legal folks, where typically you find the the aspects around privacy and on the other hand, the information security folks, because if you're building up sort of map of your data, look at it like a castle, right, that you're trying to protect. If you don't have a map of your castle, with the strong points and the weak points, and you know where people can build, dig a hole under your wall or what have you, then it's very hard to defend. So, you have to be able to get a map of your data, a data map if you will, know what data is out there. Who its being used by, and why and how, and then you want to prioritize that data, which is the most important what are the most important uses and put the appropriate protections and controls in place. And it's fundamental that you do that together with your legal and information security partners because you may have as a data lead that you may have the data knowledge, the data expertise but, there's a bunch of other things that come into play when you're trying to protect, not just the data but, really your company on its data as a whole. >> No, you Were talking about 2025 a little bit ago, and I thought good for you, that's quite a crystal ball that you have it, you know looking to, you know, with the headlights that far down the road, but I know you have to be, you know that kind of progressive thinking is very important. What do you see in, in the long-term for number one, your kind of position as a chief data citizen, if you will, and then the role of the chief data officer, which you think is kind of migrating toward that citizenship, if you will. So, maybe put on those long-term vision goggles of yours again, and tell me, what do you see as far as these evolving roles and, and these new responsibilities for people who are CEOs these days? >> Well, 2025 is closer than we think right? Then obviously, my crystal ball is as fuzzy as everyone else's but, there's a few things, that trends that you can easily identify and that we've seen by doing this for so long at Collibra. And one is the, the push around data. I think last year, the years, 2020,` where sort of COVID became the executive director of digitalization. Forced everyone to think more about digital, and I expect that to continue. So, that's an important aspect. The second important aspect that I expect to continue for the next couple of years, easily in 2025 is the whole movement to the cloud. So these cloud native architectures become important, as well as the, you know, preparing your data around it, preparing your policies around it, etc.. I also expect that privacy regulations will continue to increase as well as the needs to protect your data assets. And I expected a lot of key data officers will also be very busy building out those data products. So if you, if you take that that trend then, okay data products are getting more important for key data officer's, then data quality is something that's increasingly important today to get right, otherwise, becomes a garbage in garbage out kind of situation, where your data products are being fed bad foods and ultimately their outcomes aren't very clear. So for us, for the chief data officers, I think it was about one of them in 2002, and then 2019 ish, let's say there were 10,000. So there's plenty of upsides for the chief data officer there's plenty of roles like that needed across the world. And they've also evolved in, in responsibility. And I expect that their position, you know, as it it is really a C-level position today in most organizations. Expect that, that trend will also continue to grow. But ultimately those chief data officers have to think about the business, right? Not just the defensive and offensive positions around data, like almost policies and regulations but, also the support for businesses who are today, shifting very fast and will continue to, to digital. So, those key data officers will be seen as key notes. Especially when they can build out the factory of data products that really supports the business. But at the same time, they have to figure out how to reaching all of the branch to their technical counterparts, because you cannot build a factory of data products in my mind at least, without the proper infrastructure. And that's where your technical teams come in. And then obviously the partnerships with your video and information security folks, of course. >> Well heroes, everybody wants to be the hero. And I know that's a, you painted a pretty clear path right now, as far as the chief data officer's concerned and their importance and the value to companies down the road. Stan, we thank you very much for the time today and for the insight, and wish you continued success at the conference. Thank you very much. >> Thank you very much. Have a nice day. Stay healthy. >> Thank you very much Stan Christiaen's joining us, talking about chief data citizenship, if you will, as part of data citizens, 21 the conference being put on by Collibra. I'm John Walls. Thanks for joining us here on the cube. (upbeat music)