When placed into the timeline of 21st-century business practices, data governance is practically an infant. Yet, no modern enterprise should operate without it and when proper controls are in place, it's difficult to imagine life without it. As challenging as it can be, data governance keeps risk and chaos at bay by establishing quality controls for an enterprise's data.

Technology like Oracle Enterprise Data Management (EDM) has made data governance much easier, faster, and effective. So, no: MDM is not dead, but rather EDM has turned this traditional approach on its head.

Let's look at the differences between EDM and traditional master data management practices.