Metadata may not be the sexiest topic, nor may it be at the forefront of everyone’s mind. But it needs to be. The operational culture of the enterprise has gradually shifted towards a more business-centric model, one where business users and front line information consumers do not just desire better access to enterprise data assets, but need to have a comprehensive view of the organization. This means that data, as well as the metadata that describes it, must be shared, both at the developer level and the BI level. This is easier said than done.