Any data or collection of data that has value to an organization and is managed as a valuable resource.
Treating data as an asset means recognizing that data has economic, operational, or strategic value — and managing it with the same care as other organizational assets like equipment or intellectual property. This includes inventorying data assets, assigning ownership, maintaining quality, and protecting them appropriately.
The concept of data as an asset is central to data governance. An organization that does not know what data assets it has cannot govern them effectively.
Example: A municipality's data assets include its property assessment database, its GIS layers of infrastructure, its financial records, and its open data portal datasets. Each asset has a defined owner, a classification level, a retention schedule, and quality standards. The data catalog provides an inventory of all data assets and their metadata.