13. The system of claim 11 , wherein the request-receiving module, the identifying module, the querying module, the information-receiving module, and the responding module receive the request, identify the remote metadata repository, query the remote metadata repository, receive the information, and respond to the request as part of performing an early case assessment without scanning any of the plurality of information-asset sources.
11. A system for utilizing information-asset metadata aggregated from multiple disparate data-management systems, the system comprising: a request-receiving module, stored in memory, that receives, at an electronic-discovery system executing on a first computing device, a request for information about one or more information assets of an entity whose metadata satisfies a metadata-search criterion, wherein: the information assets of the entity are: distributed across a plurality of information-asset sources of the entity; and managed by at least: a first data-management system that: executes on a second computing device; generates, by scanning at least one of the plurality of information-asset sources, metadata for at least a first portion of the information assets; and transmits, via an application programming interface of a remote metadata repository executing on a third computing device, metadata for the first portion of the information assets to the third computing device for storage in the remote metadata repository; and a second data-management system that: executes on a forth computing device; generates, by scanning at least one of the plurality of information-asset sources, metadata for at least a second portion of the information assets; and transmits, via the application programming interface, the metadata for the second portion of the information assets to the third computing device for storage in the remote metadata repository; the remote metadata repository stores the metadata for the first portion of the information assets and the metadata for the second portion of the information assets; the first data-management system and the second data-management system are different types of data-management systems that manage the information assets of the entity in different fields of data management; and the first data-management system, the second data-management system, the electronic-discovery system, and the remote metadata repository are separate and distinct systems that are capable of independent operation; an identifying module, stored in memory, that identifies, at the electronic-discovery system, the remote metadata repository; a querying module, stored in memory, that queries, at the electronic-discovery system via the application programming interface while refraining from scanning any of the plurality of information-asset sources, the remote metadata repository for information about one or more of the information assets whose metadata satisfies the metadata-search criterion; an information-receiving module, stored in memory, that: receives, at the electronic-discovery system via the application programming interface of the remote metadata repository while refraining from scanning any of the plurality of information-asset sources, information about at least one information asset whose metadata satisfies the metadata-search criterion; and utilizes, at the electronic-discovery system, scanning efforts of the first data-management system or the second data-management system to discover the at least one information asset without scanning any of the plurality of information-asset sources by using the information, received from the remote metadata repository, about the information asset whose metadata satisfies the metadata-search criterion to discover the at least one information asset; a responding module, stored in memory, that responds, at the electronic-discovery system while refraining from scanning any of the plurality of information-asset sources, to the request using the information about the information asset; and at least one processor that executes the request-receiving module, the identifying module, the querying module, the information-receiving module, and the responding module.