Microsoft introduced a solution for Master Data Management for the first time in SQL Server 2008 R2; this solution is called Master Data Services (MDS). MDS improved in SQL Server 2012. In this chapter, we will walk through MDS capabilities and you will learn how to implement an MDM solution with Microsoft MDS.

MDS consists of the features shown in the following diagram. It provides domain management with models, entities, attributes, and hierarchies. The ability to create business rules and apply them for data validation is also provided. MDS can work with other systems to import data and also export master data information to them. It can be integrated with Data Quality Services (DQS) to apply matching logic on master data as well as data cleanup before inserting data into MDS.

MDS consists of multiple components. The first component is a SQL Server database for storing data and metadata. There is an MDS engine that will read and write information to that database through...