A custodian manages the technical environment where data resides.  Custodians ensure safe custody, transport, and storage of data.

Duties of a Custodian

  • Implements the user access policies specified by data trustees.
  • Ensures that data quality is sustained during technical processing (such as data entry or Extract-Transport-Load operations).
  • Ensures that the recipient of a data extract receives a copy of the business metadata that corresponds to the extracted data.
  • Resolves data quality issues in partnership with data Stewards.
  • Follows change management practices during maintenance of data within a data collection.
  • Ensures that changes to data content and controls can be audited.
  • Advises trustees on technology solutions that support the type of access the trustee wants to provide.

Duties of Custodians of Local Copies of Data

  • Abides by contractual agreement with trustee of the data domain with regard to access permissions and use of data.

Names for Custodial Team Members

Sometimes a team of people provides Custodian duties. For example, the University Data Warehouse team designated additional Custodian role names to reflect specific duties assigned to different members of the team. A person assigned the Data Access Control Custodian role will determine whether the request fits the policies specified by data trustee. A person assigned the Data Access Provisioning Custodian role will implement the request.