What is data mesh and why should businesses care?

Data mesh is an emerging concept in the tech sector that aims to decentralize the traditional business intelligence (BI) systems by distributing data ownership and processing across different teams within an organization. Unlike centralized BI systems where data is aggregated and analyzed by a central team, data mesh treats data as a product, allowing the teams that generate and understand the data to also manage and analyze it. This approach addresses bottlenecks and improves the quality of data analysis by empowering domain-specific teams to handle their own data, but it comes with challenges such as managing distributed systems and ensuring security and compatibility across different APIs. Tyk's Universal Data Graph (UDG) is a solution that facilitates this decentralized approach by providing a unified API interface that integrates data from various teams, thus maintaining the benefits of distributed data management while offering a central access point. Data mesh is particularly suited for organizations with multiple products and large data flows, such as digital consumer products or financial institutions, where understanding and leveraging data efficiently is crucial.