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My understanding of a Data Mesh is it's an approach to turn data into a product, much like you would create an API to interface with a service. A Data Mesh is

My understanding of a Data Mesh is it's an approach to turn data into a product, much like you would create an API to interface with a service. A Data Mesh is additional business logic to make data easier to understand, at the cost of implementing that business logic. A Data Mesh sounds eerily similar to Kimball. It's an up front investment to simplify the data. Kimball is frowned upon these days because dimensional modeling is another hurdle to your data. It makes sense that a Data Mesh would get the same treatment. The fact that "Data Mesh" is pushed by a consulting company has me suspicious as well.

valzam 5y ago
100% with you on the last sentence. I have listened to a few podcasts about Data Mesh by Thoughtworks people and the similarities to pushing Microservices are striking. There might be some benefit to this but the operational and mental overhead first and foremost ensures billable hours for consultancies.
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the_af 5y ago
> A Data Mesh is additional business logic to make data easier to understand, at the cost of implementing that business logic. It's logic that must be written nonetheless (in fact, logic that is currently written at any company with massive data and disparate sources of it), but instead of a centralized team of data engineers becoming the bottleneck -- and possibly misunderstanding the data -- the writing of said logic becomes the responsibility of the team who owns that particular domain, removing both the bottleneck and the hurdles of working with data you don't fully understand. > The fact that "Data Mesh" is pushed by a consulting company has me suspicious as well. That is a fair concern. Much of the software industry is busy selling snake oil and fads. It's our job to find the actual content and practices that work, and ditch the snake oil.
- iblaine 5y ago
  > the writing of said logic becomes the responsibility of the team who owns that particular domain Thanks, that much makes sense. I'm still not buying into the idea of a Data Mesh, mostly because pushing costly requirements upstream is a hard idea to sell.
  - the_af 5y ago
    I worry about that too. I guess the idea is to tell them: you own this, you can deliver faster and better than some central data team. But it is indeed a hard sell. I wonder if there are real success stories with no caveats. I'd love to learn about them.

valzam 5y ago

100% with you on the last sentence. I have listened to a few podcasts about Data Mesh by Thoughtworks people and the similarities to pushing Microservices are striking. There might be some benefit to this but the operational and mental overhead first and foremost ensures billable hours for consultancies.

deleted 5y ago

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the_af 5y ago

> A Data Mesh is additional business logic to make data easier to understand, at the cost of implementing that business logic. It's logic that must be written nonetheless (in fact, logic that is currently written at any company with massive data and disparate sources of it), but instead of a centralized team of data engineers becoming the bottleneck -- and possibly misunderstanding the data -- the writing of said logic becomes the responsibility of the team who owns that particular domain, removing both the bottleneck and the hurdles of working with data you don't fully understand. > The fact that "Data Mesh" is pushed by a consulting company has me suspicious as well. That is a fair concern. Much of the software industry is busy selling snake oil and fads. It's our job to find the actual content and practices that work, and ditch the snake oil.

iblaine 5y ago
> the writing of said logic becomes the responsibility of the team who owns that particular domain Thanks, that much makes sense. I'm still not buying into the idea of a Data Mesh, mostly because pushing costly requirements upstream is a hard idea to sell.
- the_af 5y ago
  I worry about that too. I guess the idea is to tell them: you own this, you can deliver faster and better than some central data team. But it is indeed a hard sell. I wonder if there are real success stories with no caveats. I'd love to learn about them.