Data Mesh Newsletter #11
The quick bit
1) WE WANT YOUR HELP! 😊 Much like the data mesh itself, we are decentralizing lots of things for the community. If you are interested, please join the community steering channel! We will be launching new initiatives re community governance, a data mesh manifesto, multiple newsletter contributors (and new editors), new meetup hosts, and much more.
2) We are launching a panel talks series! The first panel will be on one of the hardest topics in data mesh: Data Discovery; hosted by the amazing Paco Nathan and featuring a fantastic group of experts; August 20 (6:30pm CEST / 12:30pm EDT).
3) We are looking for ideas for future panels; please let us know what you us to cover! Or if you want to participate/lead a panel. Message Scott in the Slack.
4) It is becoming clear we need some very short explanations around data mesh / data mesh terms. Therefore, we are having a general community “jam session” meetup on Thursday (6:30pm CEST / 12:30pm EDT). Come help shape the way people talk about data mesh!
5) Seeing some individual meetup initiatives re data mesh and that is AWESOME! One is a virtual meetup in Norway (likely in Norwegian) on Sept 1st and the other is in Prague in person (possibly recorded/streamed as well) on Sept 2nd.
Interesting Data Mesh Related Content
Data Mesh and Domain Ownership
by Zhamak Dehghani and Danilo Sato (Thoughtworks); video (85min)
Zhamak and Danilo covered the motivation of bringing domain driven design concepts into data mesh, how to identify and define domains, how to structure teams and data products, and a big section on Master Data Management comparing how it’s traditionally approached versus how data mesh approaches it. Zhamak also finished outlining the mindset shift required to transform towards domain-oriented data.
Data Mesh Behind the Walls – Saxo Bank (DML Meetup)
by Sheetal Pratik (Saxo Bank), Divya Joshi (Thoughtworks), Madhu Podila (Thoughtworks); video (88min)
Saxo Bank and Thoughtworks shared a lot of great information about how Saxo Bank has evolved to deploy a data mesh based on streaming technologies. They covered their data workbench, a one-stop data shop that provides transparency of Saxo’s data ecosystem. They also spoke about the different journeys for data product producers and consumers.
Decoding the Data Mesh
by Barr Moses (Monte Carlo - Vendor); blog post
Another great article by Barr/Monte Carlo, this one approaching some of the basic concepts of data mesh and how to approach them. There is an especially good section on data virtualization and if that can be used as a basis for your data mesh (below) - hint: it’s probably not a great idea.
Data Domain Fictional Case Study: Retail
by Ust Oldfield (Advancing Analytics - Consulting Co); blog post
A relatively shallow dive but still quite helpful re thinking about how to derive domains for data mesh with a company that is not using DDD. Rather than looking at this as a template, potentially look at it as a way to frame the questions of who should own what data and what data should be grouped together when attempting to derive your initial domains. And to start a data mesh journey, you only need a few defined domains, you don’t have to decompose the entire company at the start - plus, things change 😎
Introducing Domain-Oriented Microservice Architecture
by Adam Gluck (Uber); blog post
A very interesting post about grouping microservices into domains and no longer treating every microservice as if it were entirely independent of other domains. This feels similar in initial setup to how one might apply some of the data mesh principles to operational workloads.
NOTE: data mesh is designed for analytical workloads; many people are looking at how to apply the concept to the operational world as well. To be clear, that would not fit Zhamak’s vision (which is the definition of data mesh), especially products that attempt to serve both operational workloads and analytical as that can cause LOTS of problems and is highly likely to make the analytical use case a second-class concern
Upcoming Meetups / Zhamak Stuff
DML Meetups/Events:
Aug 20 (Panel): Data Discovery Panel hosted by Paco Nathan of Derwen.ai (LinkedIn|Twitter) and will feature Shinji Kim (SelectStar), Shirshanka Das (Acryl Data/DataHub), Mark Grover (Stemma.ai/Amundsen), and Sophie Watson (Red Hat). 10pm IST / 6:30pm CEST / 12:30pm EDT / 9:30am PDT
Aug 19: Collab session as a meetup to craft short explanations of data mesh and data mesh related terms. It’s pretty clear that we need some easy-to-understand short phrases re data mesh and key terms in data mesh (and maybe what data mesh ISN’T). The recording of this meetup will not be posted to our YouTube channel; we will take the resulting explanations (and run them by Zhamak to make sure they work) and then 1) share them with the Slack and 2) vote on which ones we like best.
10pm IST / 6:30pm CEST / 12:30pm EDT / 9:30am PDT
Aug 26: Mohammad Syed to host, more agenda info to come
Sept 2: Delhivery
Sept 9: Still figuring this one out
Sept 16: AO
Sept 23: Overstock.com
Sept 30: Adevinta
October speaking slots open! Contact Scott if you want to share your journey!
Other Data Mesh Meetups/Webinars/Training
Zhamak-Led Training (4 days, 4hrs each day, Sept 20, 21, 27, 28); 15% discount link makes it 1,657.50 Euro (we don’t understand VAT) - early bird pricing ends soon. The last training was phenomenally helpful, especially re deriving domains, in our opinion.
Data Mesh and Governance webinar; Zhamak, Chris Ford, and Jason Hare (Thoughtworks); Aug 26 at 6pm CEST / 9:30pm IST / noon EDT / 9am PDT
Data Platform in a mesh architecture webinar; Zhamak and Emily Gorcenski (Thoughtworks); Oct 14 at 5:30pm CEST / 9:0pm IST / 11:30am EDT / 8:30am PDT
Norwegian Data Mesh Meetup; No official page but, per this post, please message Winfried Etzel in the Slack to get more info and an invite; the first meetup will be the amazing Bente Lønnquist Busch from NAV; Sept 1st (streamed)
Prague Data Mesh Meetup (Hosted by Keboola); the team is still working out the exact agenda but they plan to have 2 presentations on topics re data mesh; Sept 2nd (in-person in Prague) starting at 4pm CEST
/Newsletter
If you have questions/comments/concerns/suggestions for future newsletters, please let us know at community@datameshlearning.com.
Special thanks to DataStax for allowing me to focus on this community and hopefully helping you all learn more about data mesh 😅