As data volumes, types, and sensitivities continue to grow, data mapping is no longer optional — it's a strategic necessity for any effective governance framework. It helps organizations address key challenges, such as:
Where is my sensitive data stored (customer, HR, financial, etc.)?
How much personal data does my organization hold?
What kind of personal data is it (names, emails, SSNs…)?
Who has access to it, and under what compliance framework (GDPR, ISO 27001)?
What is its quality level? Can we actually trust and use it?
👉 Without full visibility into your data landscape, it’s impossible to ensure reliability, compliance, or value creation. That’s where data scanning comes in.
Data scanning refers to the automated process of exploring IT systems (databases, files, data lakes, etc.) to identify, extract, and analyze metadata and sensitive data. It allows organizations to map their data at scale — without relying on outdated documentation or overburdened IT teams.
Unlike manual inventories or declarative surveys, data scanning enables real and comprehensive discovery, including hard-to-track areas like shadow IT, spreadsheets, legacy exports, and more.
Within the Tale of Data platform, this first step — known as “Connect & Extract Map” — is much more than a technical prerequisite. It is the recommended starting point for any organization aiming to manage its data strategically and responsibly.
This step supports a modern, efficient data management approach adopted by leading organizations: building an automated, comprehensive, and continuously updated map of the entire data landscape to guarantee data quality, compliance, and operational value.
Tale of Data connects seamlessly to your existing environments through a wide range of native connectors: relational databases, CRM, ERP, flat files, data lakes, APIs, or cloud services. No heavy integration, no custom development — the mapping starts immediately.
The Mass Data Discovery engine scans all systems to automatically identify data structures, sensitive fields, and potential risks. It detects names, emails, IBANs, phone numbers, customer IDs, and more — along with redundancies, empty fields, duplicates, and quality drifts.
👉 Even hidden data buried in shadow IT (Excel files on shared drives, forgotten exports) is included in the analysis.
This continuous scanning also powers our data observability module, detecting anomalies in real time, monitoring freshness, drift, and rule violations across all sources.
With Custom Data Natures, Tale of Data gives you the flexibility to define what’s sensitive for your organization:
Predefined value lists (e.g., Religion — to ensure no such data is stored in violation of policy)
Regular expressions to match specific formats (e.g., French license plates)
Custom scripts for complex detection logic
This feature greatly enhances scanning power, especially in regulated or high-security environments where traditional scanners fall short.
Scan results are instantly converted into interactive, filterable maps, easily understandable even for non-technical users.
You can clearly visualize:
Where your data is located
What types of data are stored
Their quality and compliance status
How they evolve over time
Each user accesses a personalized catalog, enriched with metadata and governed by role-based permissions.
This isn’t a one-off audit. It’s a living, continuously updated foundation for your data quality, compliance, and governance initiatives.
➡️ This is what every organization should implement as the first step in its data strategy. Failing to map your data is like building a house without foundations.
📥 Want to raise awareness among your teams?
Download our visual guide “What is Data Quality?” — a clear, illustrated infographic to introduce your organization to the fundamentals of high-quality data.
For a concrete example of the benefits of data scanning, check out this full GDPR data mapping use case.
A major company had to demonstrate full GDPR compliance — especially the ability to identify and justify every piece of personal data stored. Rather than relying on internal interviews, they used Tale of Data to:
Automatically scan databases, shared files, and cloud systems
Detect all sensitive records (names, emails, IBANs…)
Map data usage by processing purpose and link it to a legal basis (consent, legitimate interest…)
💡 Result: a credible, audit-ready data processing register, ongoing data clean-up capability, and significantly reduced non-compliance risk.
Without data scanning, governance is blind. You can’t validate your data, detect anomalies, or implement any sustainable quality program.
At Tale of Data, this automated data mapping is a pillar of our platform. It gives you a complete, objective, and dynamic view of your data assets — powering your quality, compliance (GDPR, ISO 27001), and value-creation initiatives.
By scanning your systems, files, and even shadow IT, you can:
Spot risk areas: forgotten sensitive data, unprotected spreadsheets, obsolete sources
Prioritize your actions: identify which datasets to clean, enrich, or anonymize — with no time wasted
Align your teams: IT, business, and compliance stakeholders collaborate on a shared, visual, and up-to-date truth
➡️ This approach is what every data-driven organization should implement to build modern, sustainable governance.
📥 To better understand the foundations of this process, download our infographic “What is Data Quality?” — a visual and educational resource to help your teams embrace data quality best practices.
👉 Read also: The Root Causes of Poor Data Quality — Understand Them to Act Better
Mapping your data gives it meaning. With Tale of Data, this once-painful process becomes fast, scalable, and strategic — no manual effort required.
Want to learn how to scan all your systems and generate a live, reliable data map in just a few clicks?
👉 Request a personalized demo now.