Cluster Governance is the process of maintaining cluster memberships and cluster Preferred/Result Records. It includes both automatic cluster updates through the Synchronizer, as well as manual changes made with the Informatica Data Director.

Cluster Membership can be changed through two basic operations, these being Merging and Splitting. A cluster merge involves combing the records of two clusters into one. The second cluster is effectively deleted by transferring all of its records into the first cluster. Splitting a cluster means that a single cluster is broken into two or more clusters.

A cluster Preferred/Result Record can be a record composed of a combination of data taken from the individual cluster members, or it can be a selected cluster member record. It is sometimes called a Golden Record. Cluster governance provides tools for creating and modifying these records.