Clarification on Glossary Strategy and Consolidation in Microsoft Purview

Question

Hi Microsoft Support Team,

We are currently working with Microsoft Purview and have observed the presence of two glossary experiences:

1. Glossary under Catalog Management (Classic / Data Map)
2. Enterprise Glossary under Unified Catalog (Discovery)

We would like clarification on the following:

1. What is the recommended approach for managing business glossary terms across these two experiences?
2. Is there any synchronization mechanism between Classic Glossary and Enterprise Glossary?
3. Are there any Microsoft-recommended migration strategies to move from Classic Glossary to Enterprise Glossary?
4. What is the long-term roadmap—will Enterprise Glossary fully replace Classic Glossary?
5. Are there any best practices to avoid duplication and ensure a single source of truth for glossary terms?

Current Challenge: We are facing duplication of glossary terms and governance confusion due to maintaining two separate glossaries.

We would appreciate guidance on how to standardize glossary management within Microsoft Purview and align with Microsoft’s recommended architecture.

Looking forward to your guidance.

Thanks & Regards,

Sudhakar

Answer 1

Hello SudhakarReddy Marepalli,

I see the above answer covers it all, but I would like to add upon a couple of points for simplification and clarity.

• Classic Glossary Terms can be assigned at the Asset and Schema levels, and Enterprise Glossary Terms are scoped to Business Domains. I would suggest using Enterprise Glossary for new and ongoing business and treat classic as legacy and use when required.
• There is no synchronization available today between these two, but a migration path is in the roadmap. Refer to: MS-Purview-Data-Governance-Roadmap-H1-CY2026.pdf
• Enterprise Glossary is the forward‑looking experience for business concepts, while the classic glossary remains in support mode with no new feature investments, but no definite deprecation mentioned. That said, migration in the roadmap helps manage the glossary from a single place.

Hope that helps!

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Answer 2

1. Recommended approach for managing glossary terms across the two experiences

Microsoft Purview currently exposes:

• The classic business glossary in the Data Catalog/Data Map experience.
• The Enterprise glossary (preview) in Unified Catalog.

The Enterprise glossary is the forward-looking experience for business concepts and data products. It provides:

• Enterprise glossary browsing under Unified Catalog → Discovery → Enterprise glossary.
• Consolidated views of governance domains, glossary terms, critical data elements, and OKRs, with links to data products and access requests.

The classic glossary remains accessible but is in a classic experience that is in customer support mode and not taking on new customers. For new governance work and new business concepts, the recommended direction is to use the Enterprise glossary in Unified Catalog and treat the classic glossary as legacy.

2. Synchronization between Classic Glossary and Enterprise Glossary

No synchronization mechanism is described between the classic business glossary and the Enterprise glossary. The classic glossary and the Enterprise glossary are separate experiences:

• Classic glossary is accessed via Unified Catalog → Catalog management → Classic types → Glossaries.
• Enterprise glossary is accessed via Unified Catalog → Discovery → Enterprise glossary.

The documentation describes how to work with each but does not describe any automatic sync or bidirectional replication of terms between them.

3. Migration strategies from Classic Glossary to Enterprise Glossary

The classic experience supports export and import of glossary terms via CSV, and there is guidance for migrating glossary terms as part of broader migration/disaster recovery scenarios:

• Classic glossary terms can be exported to CSV using the Microsoft Purview governance portal and re-imported where needed.
• For automated migration in classic scenarios, glossary GUIDs are obtained via the List Glossaries API and terms are migrated using APIs, with relationships and classifications handled separately.

For moving from classic glossary to Enterprise glossary, the documented building blocks are:

• Export terms from the classic glossary to CSV using the classic governance portal.
• Use those exported definitions as the source to create or curate terms in the Enterprise glossary (for example, via manual creation or automation aligned with the Enterprise glossary model).

The context does not describe a one-click or native “migrate classic glossary to Enterprise glossary” feature; migration is based on export/import and API-driven approaches.

4. Long-term roadmap: Enterprise Glossary vs Classic Glossary

The classic Microsoft Purview Data Catalog and related classic governance experiences are described as:

• “No longer taking on new customers” and “now in customer support mode.”

The Enterprise glossary is presented as the new experience in Unified Catalog, with active concepts (terms that can drive policies and data product governance). This indicates that Enterprise glossary is the strategic direction.

However, the context does not explicitly state a deprecation date or a formal statement that Enterprise glossary will fully replace the classic glossary, only that classic is in support mode and Enterprise glossary is the new experience.

5. Best practices to avoid duplication and ensure a single source of truth

Based on the documented capabilities and lifecycle state of each experience, the following practices align with Microsoft guidance:

• Designate Enterprise glossary as the primary source of truth for new business concepts
  • Use Unified Catalog → Enterprise glossary for new governance domains, glossary terms, critical data elements, and OKRs.
  • Leverage the Enterprise glossary’s ability to link concepts directly to data products and support access requests.
• Minimize changes in the classic glossary
  • Treat the classic glossary as legacy; avoid creating new terms there.
  • Use classic only where existing solutions still depend on it, while planning migration.
• Migrate existing classic terms into the Enterprise glossary in a controlled manner
  • Export existing classic terms to CSV from the classic governance portal.
  • Clean and rationalize the exported list (remove duplicates, consolidate synonyms, validate parent/child relationships and related terms).
  • Recreate or import these as Enterprise glossary terms, aligning them with governance domains, critical data elements, and data products.
• Use relationships and active terms to centralize meaning
  • In classic, relationships (parent/child, synonyms, acronyms, related terms) are bi-directional and help avoid semantic duplication.
  • In Unified Catalog, glossary terms can be activated and attached to policies that trickle down to data products, providing a single policy anchor per concept.
• Standardize access roles
  • Ensure catalog readers and data stewards use the Enterprise glossary for discovery and policy-driven governance.
  • Restrict editing of the classic glossary to a small group while migration is ongoing, to prevent new divergence.
• Link glossary terms to data products instead of duplicating terms
  • In Unified Catalog, link glossary terms to data products and, where applicable, to master data assets and MDM solutions, so that one term represents the concept across multiple assets.

These practices help converge on a single, Enterprise glossary–centric model while classic remains in support mode and is gradually phased out of active governance workflows.

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References:

• Enterprise glossary (preview)
• Create and manage glossary terms
• Creating glossary terms in the classic experience
• Understand business glossary features in the classic Microsoft Purview governance portal
• Import and export glossary terms
• Disaster recovery and migration best practices for Microsoft Purview data governance (classic)
• Master data management in Microsoft Purview
• Glossary terms in Unified Catalog