A subscription controls access to a data product in line with the permissions contained in a subscription plan. Subscription plans are applied by a data product owner and dictate the following:

  • Usage - Determines whether the data product can be used on-platform (Spaces), off-platform (Export), or both (Spaces and Export).

  • Term - The period during which access will be provided to the data product.

  • Price - The cost requirements to access and use the data product.

  • Channel - Access to a data product is requested via “contact us” and specifically allocated by an administrator (i.e. managed) or access is made available immediately (i.e. self-service).

  • Scope - The scope of access to a data product, i.e. is it applicable to all users within the organization or for a specific number of individual users.

  • Terms and Conditions - The legal or policy requirements to access and use the data product.

  • Lineage - Determines whether a subscription to the data product is required by users of derivative data products. It is important to choose subscription lineage carefully when a subscription is first applied to a data product. If ‘Do not enforce' is chosen then a Spaces and Export subscription is automatically applied. Use this if you do not want to replace any restrictions on an engineered data product.

Determining the right approach to subscription management is important as it determines how much administration is required by the data product owner versus how much control is required over access.

  • High Control / High Administration : Scope = Single User, Channel = Managed

  • Low Control / Low Administration : Scope = Organization, Channel = Managed