Describe the purpose of Azure Data Catalog.
Azure Data Catalog serves as a central, metadata-driven cataloging and discovery platform within the Microsoft Azure ecosystem. Its primary purpose is to empower organizations to efficiently discover, understand, and effectively utilize their data assets. In today's data-driven landscape, organizations generate and accumulate vast amounts of data across various data sources, databases, and cloud services. Azure Data Catalog addresses the challenges of data sprawl and complexity by providing a unified repository where metadata about data assets, data sources, and data sets can be documented, organized, and shared across the organization.