Here are several quotes from “Data Mesh: Delivering Data-Driven Value at Scale” by Zhamak Dehghani that together provide a comprehensive understanding of what Data Mesh is:
- On the Fundamental Concept: “Data Mesh is a sociotechnical approach to share, access, and manage analytical data in complex and large-scale environments—within or across organizations—by leveraging a domain-oriented, self-serve design and architecture.”
- On Domain-Oriented Decentralization: “Data Mesh shifts the data architecture paradigm from centralized data lakes and warehouses to a decentralized data management approach, where data is treated as a product and owned by cross-functional domain teams.”
- On Data as a Product: “In Data Mesh, data is treated as a product, with clear ownership, quality standards, and dedicated teams responsible for delivering data that is usable, reliable, and valuable to consumers.”
- On Self-Serve Data Infrastructure: “Data Mesh promotes a self-serve data infrastructure platform that provides domain teams with the tools and capabilities to autonomously manage the lifecycle of their data products, from creation to consumption.”
- On Federated Governance: “Data Mesh incorporates federated computational governance, which ensures that data standards, compliance, and policies are enforced across domains in a decentralized but coherent manner, balancing autonomy and central oversight.”
- On Sociotechnical Approach: “The success of Data Mesh relies on a sociotechnical approach, which acknowledges that organizational culture, processes, and technology must all align to support the decentralized management and utilization of data.”
These quotes collectively outline the key principles of Data Mesh: decentralization, domain-oriented data ownership, data as a product, self-serve infrastructure, federated governance, and the sociotechnical nature of the approach.