Understanding the Modern Data Stack and Data Mesh
Hello, everyone! I, Colleen Tarto from Starburst, am here today to explain to you two significant aspects of modern data strategy. These aspects are the modern data stack and data mesh, both of which are being utilized by businesses worldwide to make data-driven decisions for improved competitiveness and business growth.
The Importance of Data Management
Data management ought to be a top concern for every modern enterprise. The astonishing exponential growth of data, as reflected in many research graphs, constantly shows us that data has become crucial for businesses to excel in their field. But how does a company transform this sea of data into actionable insights?
Data management is the answer that can help an organization competently control its data assets. It involves efficient organization and management of data and its related resources, such as the people who handle the data, and the technology used for data movement and analysis.
Type of the Companies That Need Data Management
Data management is substantially important for a large corporation or enterprise scale company, given its huge data volume and growing complexity in data handling. As the company and its business grow, the complexity and volume of data also increase, significantly amplifying the task of efficient data management.
Modern Data Stack and Data Mesh: The Key Concepts
The modern data stack and data mesh are two terms that you are likely to stumble upon frequently if you are a 'data-enthusiast'. Let's dive into each of these concepts to have a better understanding of their principles, functionality, and utility.
What The Modern Data Stack Really Is?
The modern data stack refers to the technology or tools used by a company to extract value from data. This involves the complete process, from curating raw data to employing analytics on it for decision-making. It typically comprises a data pipeline, data storage domain like a data warehouse or lake, and an analytics tool.
Isn't "Modern Data Stack" Really Modern?
If you reflect on the historical development of data stack architecture, you may, ironically, notice this "modern data stack" is a cloud and SaaS-based upgrade of the 40-year-old legacy data stack. However, the legacy stack was created due to the hardware limitations of transactional systems at the time. The modernization has brought in ELT (Extract Load Transform) replacing ETL (Extract Transform Load), separation of computing and storage, cloud computing, and usage-based pricing models.
Data Mesh: A Strategy for Large-Scaled Business Operations
Now let's get to the concept of data mesh. Emerging from a modern data management strategy, data mesh is indeed a miracle scheme that resolves many hitches of data handling faced on a large scale. It presents a way to package and approach the ideas around data management neatly, making data handling a more streamlined and organized process.
Key Pillars of Data Mesh
- Domain-oriented decentralized data ownership: This means the-who-produces-the-data-knows-the-best principle applies. The creators of the domain must own the data.
- Data as a product: The heart of data mesh lies in treating data as a high-quality, consumable product.
- Self-service data infrastructure: The central IT organization will provide the tools that the domains need for data processing.
- Federated computational governance: Some aspects are global while others are owned by the domains.
Connecting Modern Data Stack and Data Mesh
The modern data stack and data mesh, although seem to be distinct concepts, are not entirely disparate. They are stops on a journey, from a startup to a large-scale business.
Modern data stack is advantageous for companies starting their journey with less complex data where the centralized data scheme would work. On the contrary, larger and more complex businesses may benefit from data mesh's decentralized data strategy.
Ultimately, the idea is to sustainably and proactively manage data, leading to strategic business advantages and growth.
If you’re interested in discussing these topics further, please reach out to me at Colleen@starburst.io. Don’t forget, Starburst is hiring, and we would love to hear from you!