Azure Master Data Management (MDM)

Master data management in Azure is the process of creating and maintaining a trusted, consistent view of core business information across connected Microsoft systems. The MDM process happens through an MDM solution like Profisee, which consolidates records from multiple sources, resolves duplicates, applies governance rules and publishes reliable master data across downstream applications.

By practicing MDM, organizations ensure their master data is accurate, consistent and complete, no matter where it’s used or stored. You can use Profisee MDM in tandem with other tools such as Microsoft Purview, Azure Databricks and Azure Data Factory to enable analytical and operational MDM use cases and to drive business results.

Profisee integrates with popular Azure tools and is available as a native workload in Microsoft Fabric.

Profisee MDM works with Microsoft services across the Azure ecosystem to unify, govern and deliver trusted master records for analytics and operational use. You can load master data from source systems into Profisee by either using Profisee’s built-in integration capabilities or by using Azure Data Factory. Microsoft Purview then scans and classifies data sources for building a data catalog while Profisee removes duplicate records and enforces data governance policies defined in Purview to ensure data is standardized and accurate.

From there, Profisee sends golden records to downstream tools such as Power BI, Azure Synapse Analytics and Azure Machine Learning.

See why Profisee is the clear choice for Microsoft’s master data management.

Microsoft Purview is a data governance tool, while Profisee is a master data management solution. These technologies are commonly used together to support data governance programs, but they perform different functions and play different roles. Here’s how they work together:

• Microsoft Purview: A data governance tool that scans and classifies source records for building a map of your data estate. Purview is used to define governance policies for better record quality, security and compliance that can then be enforced by an MDM tool like Profisee.
• Profisee MDM: A master data management tool that integrates, deduplicates, cleanses and enriches enterprise information to create golden records for a number of applications, including analytics and products. Commonly used in conjunction with tools like Microsoft Purview, which provide metadata about the master data in addition to the governance policies that dictate how companies should handle master records.

You can integrate data from multiple source systems into Profisee, match and merge duplicate records, standardize them according to your governance policies and then enrich the data before publishing the golden records to downstream systems like Power BI, Azure Databricks and Azure Synapse Analytics.

Microsoft Purview Data Lifecycle Management helps organizations retain necessary information and delete records that are no longer needed. This process not only supports compliance and regulatory requirements but also mitigates risks by reducing unnecessary data exposure.

Integrating MDM solutions like Profisee with Microsoft Purview enhances data lifecycle management by ensuring records being governed are accurate, consistent and trustworthy. Profisee MDM matches, merges, standardizes, cleanses and enriches master records according to established governance rules defined in Purview. This integration allows for publishing of golden master records to Purview, further populating the Unified Catalog and ensuring that critical data sources are well-documented and governed.

No, Azure does not offer a tool for master data management. Microsoft retired Master Data Services (MDS), its previous MDM component and has not replaced it with a native equivalent, which is why MS MDM projects run on a third-party platform inside Azure rather than on a Microsoft product.

You can use third-party master data management solutions like Profisee with the Azure tools you already use. Profisee works with Azure technologies such as Microsoft Purview, Azure Data Factory, Microsoft Power BI and Azure Databricks to support a wide range of analytical and operational use cases.

Profisee is also available as a native Microsoft Fabric integration, allowing you to access the full MDM set of capabilities from the same Fabric UI you already know.

See why Profisee and Microsoft are better together.

To implement master data management in Azure, pick the master data domain causing the most downstream pain, whether that’s customer, product, supplier or location. Your choice will scope the first release. From there, the sequence is consistent across Azure deployments:

1. Deploy Profisee through an ARM template or the Microsoft MDM marketplace, which stands up a PaaS instance in minutes.
2. Connect source systems using Profisee’s built-in integrations or Azure Data Factory, which brings pre-built connectivity to more than 100 applications and services.
3. Import the governance policies already defined in Microsoft Purview so that the match, merge and standardization rules enforce what governance has already agreed.
4. Publish golden records to the downstream systems that consume them, such as Power BI, Azure Synapse Analytics and Azure Databricks.

Both, for most enterprises. You should run master data management where the MDM workload sits, whether that’s on Azure or Fabric.

• Use Microsoft Fabric if your data and analytics teams primarily work on it and want to manage master data within the same environment. Profisee’s native Fabric workload also supports publishing golden records to OneLake.
• Use Azure if your data estate extends beyond Fabric or you want more control over how Profisee is deployed and integrated with services such as Microsoft Purview, Azure Data Factory and Azure Synapse Analytics.

Both routes run the same Profisee platform against the same data model, so the decision comes down to where your analytics live today rather than which product you buy.

Explore Microsoft reference architectures and how they integrate with Profisee.

Microsoft Copilot and the agents you build in Azure AI Foundry answer from whatever records they can reach. When multiple systems hold different versions of the same customer, Copilot returns three different answers and an agent picks one without telling you the reasoning. Master data management solutions resolve duplicate records before sending a golden record to your systems, so a question about a customer, product or supplier points to one governed information no matter which tool asks for it.

Explore how MDM for generative AI works.