Data Catalog platforms provide a searchable, governed inventory of data assets across the organization, answering 'what data exists, who owns it, what does it mean, and where does it come from.' Core capabilities include automated discovery of datasets across warehouses, lakes, BI tools, and operational systems; column-level lineage with impact analysis; business glossary curation with term-to-column linkage; ownership and stewardship metadata; usage analytics showing how datasets are consumed; data profiling and quality-signal integration; and AI-powered natural-language search. The category has converged with Data Governance as vendors bundle discovery and policy management. Leading vendors include Atlan, Collibra, Alation, data.world, Select Star, Acryl Data (DataHub), Secoda, and Castor.