Data quality checks traditionally occur later in the data lifecycle, often during batch processing or after data has been stored and reached downstream at lakes and warehouses. This practice aims to ensure accuracy and integrity on a large scale. However, the 1-10-100 rule highlights the increasing cost and complexity of addressing data quality issues based on when they are identified and resolved. According to this rule, fixing a problem at the source costs 1 unit, correcting it after processing costs 10 units, and addressing it after it has affected business processes or customers can cost 100 units or more.

Informatica Cloud Data Quality enhances this approach with a "Shift Left" strategy that implements quality checks as early as the data entry or capture phase. Enforcing data quality rules directly at the source and exposing these rules as APIs facilitates real-time validation, seamless integration, and early detection of inconsistencies. This proactive approach prevents errors from spreading downstream, reduces remediation efforts, and empowers organizations to improve their data quality management.

Making data quality rules available through APIs allows these rules to be accessed and invoked as services over the web, providing numerous benefits particularly suited for today's agile environments:

Seamless Integration Across Platforms
APIs allow data quality rules to seamlessly integrate into any application, data pipeline, or platform, regardless of the underlying technology. This ensures that diverse teams and systems across the enterprise consistently apply the same data quality standards, eliminating duplication and mismatches.

Real-Time Validation and Cleansing
APIs enable dynamic validation and cleaning of data as it moves through business systems. Real-time enforcement ensures that only compliant, high-quality data proceeds downstream, reducing errors and the need for expensive rework.

Reuse and Standardization
Establishing data quality rules once then making them available as reusable API endpoints ensures the entire organization benefits from a unified source of truth. This method standardizes data quality policies and prevents fragmented or conflicting rules across various projects.

Flexible, Scalable Quality Checks
APIs facilitate the modular execution of individual or composite data quality checks. As data volumes rise or quality requirements change, APIs can scale independently, adapting to new demands without extensive redevelopment.

Automation for Efficiency
By embedding data quality APIs into workflows, businesses achieve end-to-end automation. This reduces reliance on manual data cleaning, lowers operational overhead, and enables proactive monitoring and rapid issue resolution.

AI and GenAI Enablement
Data Quality APIs ensure that AI and Generative AI systems receive clean, validated, and standardized data at the source. Supplying high-quality data improves model accuracy, reduces bias, and enhances the reliability of AI-generated insights.

Governance, Compliance, and Transparency
Using Data Quality APIs enables robust logging, auditing, and traceability within both traditional and AI/GenAI data pipelines. This comprehensive visibility ensures regulatory compliance, supports internal governance, and builds greater trust in the accuracy and reliability of data and AI-driven outputs.

Accelerated Time to Value
Data engineers and developers can directly use data quality APIs, removing the necessity to create validation logic from the ground up, accelerating implementation timelines and lowering costs.

Centralized Rule Management
By managing rules through a centralized API service, updates can be instantly reflected across all systems that utilize these APIs. This eliminates deployment delays and ensures consistency.

Informatica Cloud Data Quality enhances traditional batch-oriented data quality checks by implementing enforcement earlier in the data lifecycle and making rules available as APIs for wider use. This functionality provides real-time validation, allows for flexible deployment, and supports efficient automation. As a result, organizations can maintain trusted data, which serves as a foundation for smarter business decisions.

To learn more about how Informatica can help your organization succeed, visit: https://www.informatica.com/products/data-quality.html