IBM Corp. is  utilizing Apache Atlas data governance and metadata framework as a kind of open source operating system to help customers comply with the European Union’s forthcoming General Data Protection Regulation, perhaps better-known as GDPR

The moves include new data governance tools, the opening of new data science and machine learning education centers in London and Boblingen, Germany, and the formation of the Open Data Governance Consortium for Apache Atlas. Data governance is enjoying new popularity thanks to GDPR, which will impose harsh new penalties on companies that fail to safeguard the privacy of EU citizens – regardless of whether they are currently living in the EU — beginning late next May.

Apache Atlas is a Hortonworks Inc.-developed project that IBM hopes to advance from incubation to top-level status through its new software offerings and the efforts of the consortium. “We saw a need to get everybody together who has an interest in Atlas to make it ready for the enterprise,” said Rob Thomas, general manager of IBM Analytics. As a result of the partnership with Hortonworks that IBM announced last week, “we have the vast majority of open source contributors and committers, with a great ability to drive influence in the community,” Thomas said.

Thomas described the tools as a way to catalog assets, create metadata and master data and provide for archiving and masking. “Suddenly all data is a known quantity,” he said. New technology includes a software platform comprised of data management capabilities such as cognitive metadata harvest, lineage tracking, policy enforcement, data integration services and persona-based reporting.

IBM is also making its InfoSphere Information Governance Catalog available on what it calls a “download-and-go” basis, meaning that customers can quickly download, install and run a set of governance tools. “What used to take 12 months now takes 15 minutes,” Thomas said.

Finally, the company is releasing a version of its StoredIQ automated records management software that’s specific to GDPR. The software identifies GDPR-related sensitive personal on storage media so that organizations can decide how to manage it under the regulations.

Apache Atlas, is the metadata backbone that will work with with IBM extensions for metadata management, master data management, masking and cataloging. Many of the features IBM has added came from its acquisition of Promontory Financial Group LLC last fall.

The company provided few details about the new consortium, stressing that it is open to anyone who wants to advance the Atlas project. Membership is free and anyone can join, Thomas said. “There’s no bar to get over,” he said. All code that results from the collaboration will become part of Atlas.

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