Master Data Services

Master Data Services (MDS) is a technology providing a very efficient way to manage data that has to be maintained centrally for more applications (for example, organizational structure) or data that should be cleansed and validated before it is sent to other data destinations like a data warehouse. From an administrator's perspective, it's a database usually called MDS, MDM, or master_data_services (administrator can choose the database name) and a website created on IIS. Master Data Services are not installed within SQL Server installer; a graphical tool called Master Data Services configuration manager is used for their installation and configuration.

Loading data into Master Data Services database is often done using SSIS. Then the data is optionally cleansed by data stewards. Clean and consolidated data could be subscribed via subscription views. Definitions of these views are stored in the Master Data Services database.