Data is strategic, essential and if mishandled, potentially compromising. It certainly needs to be protected. On the other hand, to become an agile, data-driven organization, data needs to be democratized effectively.
Your data needs a custodial layer to make that happen, and governance is the means to provide that. Its name makes that almost self-explanatory.
In its best implementations, data governance does more than establishing a defensive regime around data. It creates an environment that makes data highly available to the right people, trustworthy, and easily discoverable. In general, good data governance entices people in the organization to explore, query, and contribute data, and it supports efforts around digitalization and promoting data-driven practices.