In this chapter, we've gained an overview of Master Data Services and have learned the following key points:
Master Data Services ships with the Enterprise and Data Center Editions of SQL Server, allowing organizations to carry out Master Data Management at a much lower cost.
MDS assists with an MDM solution by providing generic entity modeling and maintenance capability.
The underlying SQL Server database stores entity data as well as any required metadata.
Master Data Manager is the main application that ships with MDS, providing the following features:
Data stewardship using the Explorer function
Versioning of entity data using the Version Management function
The ability to import data using the Integration Management function, as well as the ability to create objects to assist with data export
The creation and maintenance of entities and their related objects through the System Administration function
Management of security through the User and Group Permissions function
In the next chapter...