One of the hardest parts of a DBA’s job, is keeping the data quality of the databases good over time. You would expect that only correct data is entered into the system, but we are all humans, so mistakes happen…
A powerful tool that can help your DBA’s detect and prevent data quality issues is Microsoft SQL Server 2012 Data Quality Services (DQS). DQS is a knowledge-driven solution that provides both computer-assisted and interactive ways to manage the integrity and quality of your data sources. DQS enables you to discover, build, and manage knowledge about your data. You can then use that knowledge to perform data cleansing, matching, and profiling. You can also leverage the cloud-based services of reference data providers in a DQS data-quality project.
From MSDN:
DQS provides the following features to resolve data quality issues.
Data Cleansing: the modification, removal, or enrichment of data that is incorrect or incomplete, using both computer-assisted and interactive processes. For more information, see Data Cleansing.
Matching: the identification of semantic duplicates in a rules-based process that enables you to determine what constitutes a match and perform de-duplication. For more information, see Data Matching.
Reference Data Services: verification of the quality of your data using the services of a reference data provider. You can use reference data services from Windows Azure Marketplace DataMarket to easily cleanse, validate, match, and enrich data. For more information, see Reference Data Services in DQS.
Profiling: the analysis of a data source to provide insight into the quality of the data at every stage in the knowledge discovery, domain management, matching, and data cleansing processes. Profiling is a powerful tool in a DQS data quality solution. You can create a data quality solution in which profiling is just as important as knowledge management, matching, or data cleansing. For more information, see Data Profiling and Notifications in DQS.
Monitoring: the tracking and determination of the state of data quality activities. Monitoring enables you to verify that your data quality solution is doing what it was designed to do. For more information, see DQS Administration.
Knowledge Base: Data Quality Services is a knowledge-driven solution that analyzes data based upon knowledge that you build with DQS. This enables you to create data quality processes that continually enhances the knowledge about your data and in so doing, continually improves the quality of your data.
The following illustration displays the DQS process:
A good article on how to get started, can be found here.