Simplify the CDE lifecycle
CDE Manager brings clarity and automation to every stage of the lifecycle - from identifying and mapping CDEs, to reviewing, maintaining, and monitoring them for compliance and reporting.
Agents that do the heavy lifting for CDE governance
Alation introduces automation Agents designed to cut manual effort from CDE governance. These intelligent helpers draft, assess, and enforce governance standards consistently, making CDE management faster, easier, and more defensible.
Risk Assessment Agent
Applies a configurable risk model that rates CDEs as High, Medium, or Low. Prioritises governance effort where it matters most, ensuring focus on critical elements while reducing wasted work on low-risk data.
CDE Drafting Agent
Automatically generates draft definitions for CDEs from catalog context and metadata. Replaces manual authoring with speed, accuracy, and consistency, so stewards can focus where their judgement adds the most value.
Policy-as-Code Agent
Codifies policies and standards into executable governance rules. Ensures every CDE and its mapped assets are reviewed against the same consistent standards, replacing subjective, manual checks.
Scale data governance with Alation’s people-first approach
Alation strengthens governance by linking policies, standards, and responsibilities directly to data assets in the catalog. This people-first approach ensures governance is active and embedded in daily workflows, building literacy, accountability, and trust across the organisation.
Learn more about governance strategies and best practices here.
Data Mapping Agent to connect CDEs and cataloged assets
The Data Mapping Agent automatically recommends the list of assets connected to each CDE, from attributes to BI columns. This allows organisations to measure CDEs against curation standards and roll up data quality results, giving stewards a complete and defensible view without manual effort.
Alation provides the platform and capability for stakeholders … to be able to search for the data they need, and for them to understand that the data that they need is defined such that they have confidence in using that data for their business needs.
Alation plays a vital role in protecting our sensitive data. Adding the confidentiality classification to data in the catalog and linking the data to policies (e.g. personal data to the privacy policy) ensures that risk management and compliance is ‘front of mind’ and applied across all data life-cycle processes and practices.
We found that starting with Critical Data Elements was the logical way to break governance into manageable pieces, and it gave us something tangible to work with as we operationalised data governance across the business.
Why join the Alation Labs Program?
Early access to new capabilities.
Influence the roadmap with direct feedback to our product team.
Be recognised as a design partner in shaping the future of governance.