Summary

A Data Fabric architecture manages, governs, and supports the life cycle of data. It embraces a shift-left approach by infusing metadata and event-driven architectures with foundational Data Governance and data sharing capabilities. In this chapter, we reviewed the Data Integration layer focused on the development of data with a DataOps lens across the stages (develop, orchestrate, test, deploy, and monitor). We also reviewed the Self-Service layer focused on the democratization of data to achieve data sharing. Both the Data Integration and the Self-Service layers are of extreme importance; however, they heavily rely on embedded and automated governance in the Data Governance layer. All three layers seamlessly work together to manage, govern, and share data with maximum business value. They represent the constructs that compose a Data Fabric architecture.

In the next chapter, we will review how to design a technical architecture for a Data Fabric.