Quickly discover, understand and access trusted, ready-to-use data products

A data marketplace is a centralized, storefront-like platform where data consumers can intuitively discover, evaluate and request the curated, trusted data they need.

There are two main types of data marketplaces:

Internal data marketplace:

Built for use inside an organization. It helps employees find and request approved, high-quality data products without needing to hunt across systems or rely on manual processes. It breaks down silos, accelerates analytics and AI work and ensures teams are using consistent, governed data.

External data marketplace:

Used to buy, sell or exchange data between organizations. Organizations can publish their own data externally or acquire third-party data to enrich analytics, research and AI models.

In both cases, a data marketplace makes data easier to discover, easier to access and easier to use, helping teams move faster and make better decisions.

A data catalog is designed to organize and manage information about data, helping teams understand what exists across the organization. It documents systems, structures, ownership and context and provides search and governance capabilities for the full data landscape. It is primarily used by technical/advanced users.

A data marketplace, on the other hand, is built for consumption. It focuses on making it easy for data consumers at all levels to browse, request and use curated, high-value data assets. While a catalog helps teams understand all of their data, a data marketplace helps them consume the right data quickly and responsibly.

In many organizations, the data catalog is the foundation that powers the data marketplace. The catalog provides organization and context and the marketplace turns that into a simple, self-service experience

A data marketplace is used by data consumers in an organization who need (or manage) quick, reliable access to data. This includes:

• Business analysts and data analysts who need trustworthy data for reporting, dashboards and models
• Data scientists and AI teams who are looking for high-quality, well-described data to accelerate model development
• Operations, finance, marketing and product teams that require accurate data to support decisions and measure performance
• Data stewards and data owners who publish and maintain data assets, manage access requests and ensure that the right people can use the data
• IT and engineering teams who benefit from reduced ad-hoc requests and a more scalable approach to governed data access
• AI agents and automated workflows that need governed, approved data products to autonomously retrieve information, trigger actions or power analytic and operational tasks

In short, a data marketplace supports both human users and intelligent agents, giving each a trusted, consistent way to find and access the data they need.

A data product is a packaged, ready-to-use asset that delivers clear value to data consumers. In a data marketplace, data products can include curated datasets, refined tables, feature sets for AI models, reports, dashboards, APIs or even combinations of these. Each data product is published with essential information, such as purpose, quality expectations, ownership and usage guidelines so that users can quickly understand what it is and how to use it.

Data products are designed to be reusable, trustworthy and easy to request. They reduce duplication of effort, strengthen consistency across teams and allow organizations to scale analytics and AI through well-maintained, high-impact assets. In a data marketplace, they form the backbone of a company’s data sharing strategy.