Recently, we created a Meetup group for data enthusiasts in Belgium who have a keen interest in Data Mesh . It's fantastic to see that the community has grown rapidly and counts almost 100 members! This community serves as a platform for individuals to connect, share their knowledge and collaborate on exciting projects related to data mesh. By bringing together like-minded people, we aim to create a vibrant community that fosters innovation and growth in the field of data management. On the 14th of March, we hosted our first Data Mesh Belgium meetup at our Hasselt office. During this evening, we brought together experts and enthusiasts in the field. Partnering up with two esteemed data experts, Wannes Rosiers and Mathias Lavaert, we were treated to a pair of inspiring talks on the topic of data mesh! The goal of the meetup was to foster knowledge sharing and explore innovative solutions related to this emerging approach. Data mesh is an exciting development in the world of data and software architectures in general, offering a decentralized and distributed approach to building data-driven solutions at scale. The evening started with some delicious pizza and drinks, providing a relaxed atmosphere for attendees to get to know each other a little bit. Then, the experts took the stage to give two talks on various topics related to mata desh. Wannes Rosiers delivered a talk on demystifying data mesh and how to tackle common misconceptions. Mathias Lavaert shared his insights on technical foundations for a data mesh. The talks were insightful and sparked some great discussions among the attendees. At the end of the event, there was an opportunity for attendees to network and share their own experiences with each other. It was a great way to connect with others in the field and learn more about the latest developments in data mesh. The power of data mesh ⚡ Unlike traditional monolithic data architectures, which are difficult to scale and maintain, data mesh is designed to be more decentralized and distributed, with individual domains owning their own data and having their own teams responsible for the data's governance, quality, and delivery. We're excited to see such strong interest in this emerging approach, and look forward to hosting more events in the future to continue the conversation. Thank you to everyone who attended and made this event a success! We're excited to be at the forefront of the data mesh movement. Learn more about our data mesh services by clicking the button below: Check out our Data Mesh Services

We are thrilled to announce that our very own Tom De Wolf , Data Mesh expert at ACA Group, will be hosting and curating Data Mesh Live 2025 , the new conference dedicated to the Data Mesh community. The event will take place in Antwerp, Belgium, from June 4-6, 2025 , and will be co-located with Domain-Driven Design (DDD) Europe and EventCentric. About Data Mesh Live Data Mesh Live is a community-driven conference, organised by Aardling (aardling.eu) and curated by Tom De Wolf, recognized as a Data Mesh Learning community MVP and organizer of the Data Mesh Belgium Meetup . The conference aims to bring together professionals and enthusiasts to explore the challenges and opportunities in implementing Data Mesh. According to Tom, " There are a lot of challenges and aspects to consider when implementing Data Mesh. Data Mesh Live provides the ideal opportunity to learn from experts in the field and interact with peers who are passionate about Data Mesh. " Why attend Data Mesh Live? Expert insights : Gain knowledge from leading experts covering all four principles of Data Mesh and topics like Platform Architecture, Data Product Management, Federated Governance, and Decentralized Ownership. Community engagement : Network with like-minded professionals and participate in constructive discussions and collaborations. Cross-pollination of ideas : Benefit from the co-location with DDD Europe and EventCentric, fostering cross-disciplinary learning in areas like Domain-Driven Design, Product Thinking, System Thinking, Evolutionary Architectures, Platform Engineering, and Team Topologies. Experience Antwerp : Enjoy the vibrant culture and history of Antwerp while attending the conference. Check out our Data Mesh services! Who should attend? Whether you're a data engineer, data manager, data governance professional, software engineer, architect, or a management-level executive interested in Data Mesh, this conference is for you. It's ideal for anyone involved in or considering embarking on a Data Mesh journey. Tom envisions Data Mesh Live as the annual in-person conference driven by and for the Data Mesh community. " By bringing together like-minded people around Data Mesh, we aim to connect them and trigger constructive discussions and collaborations ," he says. Don't miss this opportunity to be part of a pioneering event that aims to revolutionize Data Management practices. Register now For more information and to register, please visit https://2025.datameshlive.com .

14 November 2024 - We recently hosted the 4th edition of our Data Mesh Belgium Meetup . For the fourth time, we brought together data enthusiasts and professionals to share trends, insights and innovations in the world of data mesh. Inspiring talks 🎙️ Tom Baeyens “Toddlers, Discipline, and Data Reliability in Data Mesh” Tom shared how the essence of data products in a Data Mesh lies in creating interconnected data components. These components interact through datasets governed by data contracts, quality checks, and component testing. Even without adopting a full organizational data mesh transformation, applying these software engineering best practices to data pipelines is a rising trend to enhance Data Reliability. 🎙️ Frederic Lebeau “Securing Data Mesh Collaboration with Confidential Computing" Frederic delved into Privacy Enhancing Technologies (PET) and confidential computing. He demonstrated how data products can securely process confidential data using Trusted Execution Environments (TEEs). These environments enable trusted workloads with end-to-end encryption, ensuring that data access remains restricted to the workload itself ( not users) and operates without sharing credentials. We want to thank Soda and DataVillage for partnering with us to make this edition once again a great success! What's next? 💡 Want to stay in the loop for future meetups? Join our community to stay informed about upcoming events. 🗓️ More Data Mesh news! We are excited to share that our very own Tom De Wolf will be hosting and curating Data Mesh Live 2025 , the new conference dedicated to the Data Mesh community. The event will take place in Antwerp, from 4-6 June 2025, and will be co-located with DDD Europe and EventCentric .

Brussels, Belgium — On November 14, 2024, Peter Jans, Cloud Manager at ACA Group, and Sven Houtmeyers, CTO at Publiq, will join industry leaders at the AWS for Industries Symposium in Brussels to present insights on a pioneering data-driven platform. Developed in collaboration with ACA Group, Publiq, and the Flemish Department of Culture, Youth and Media (CJM), this Data Mesh-enabled platform has been created to revolutionize the Flemish cultural sector by fostering cross-institutional data sharing and enhancing public engagement with cultural offerings. A platform for resilience and growth in the cultural sector Amid the challenges posed by the recent pandemic, the Flemish cultural sector has undergone significant strain, prompting a renewed focus on digital transformation as a recovery strategy. This initiative, part of CJM's Targeted Digital Transformation program, aims to connect audiences with cultural events through personalized recommendations and foster informed decision-making among cultural organizers. By creating a unified cloud-native platform called the UiTwisselingsplatform , CJM promotes data-sharing across a broad cultural network using an ecosystem powered by Linked Open Data and OSLO-standardization. This platform allows cultural data providers and users—ranging from event organizers to policymakers—to benefit from enriched audience insights, optimized ticketing, and streamlined administration, all within a secure, GDPR-compliant environment. Flanders Digital Awards: A double nomination for impact and sustainability This collaborative effort has earned CJM two nominations at the 2023 Flanders Digital Awards , recognizing the UiTwisselingsplatform’s transformative and sustainable approach. Competing in the Best Digital Transformation and Most Sustainable Project categories, the project highlights the sector's potential to collectively manage shared infrastructure and reduce redundancy in data entry and analysis, lowering costs and facilitating growth. Enabling innovation through Data Mesh and Cloud Native principles Underpinning this platform is the Data Mesh approach, which empowers organizations of varying technological maturity to collaborate effectively within their domains while sharing valuable data as "products." This setup encourages seamless data exchanges between "producers" and "consumers," enabling the cultural sector to scale sustainably and efficiently as more stakeholders join the platform to either access open data or share it with others to build new services and products. This platform using AWS at it’s core has been extended with Cloud Native toolings mainly Kubernetes, Tekton, etcd, containerD, Harbor, Istio, EFK, KNative, SonarCube, Flux, and Terraform to create a Platform Engineering toolset. This empowers the cloud engineers and the software engineers to focus on what they to best, self-service its needs and have the platform operate by itself with minimal manual interventions, resilience and auto-scaling.

ACA is excited to share that Tom De Wolf, DataMesh expert, presented at PlatformCon 2024, the largest platform engineering event globally. His talk, now live, explores using Kubernetes operators in platform engineering, providing practical insights for supporting microservice developers and data products engineers. PlatformCon 2024 Tom De Wolf , Architect Innovation Lead at ACA Group, delivered an enlightening talk at PlatformCon 2024 , the world’s largest platform engineering event. With over 150 speakers selected from more than 800 submissions and an impressive attendance of 30,000 virtual participants, PlatformCon continues to set the bar high for industry knowledge sharing. In his talk, Tom dove deep into the topic "Raise the Level of Abstraction: Engineering a Platform Using Kubernetes Operators". He highlighted how Kubernetes operators and Custom Resource Definitions (CRDs) can significantly lower the cognitive load on developers by creating higher-level abstractions in the Platform Orchestrator. This approach not only supports the creation of microservices for application development, but also facilitates the development of data products within a data mesh. The focus of the session was on empowering developers by abstracting away the accidental complexity of underlying infrastructure and technology. This "shift-left" strategy allows developers to work more autonomously, ultimately enabling them to deliver more value. Key takeaways Key takeaways from the talk included: How to engineer and design platforms using cloud-native technologies and Kubernetes. Utilizing Kubernetes Operators and CRDs to define fit-for-purpose abstractions. Example patterns for designing a Platform Orchestrator for your platform. Practical application for microservices within software engineering and data products within a data mesh. Did you miss the live session? No worries! You can watch the full take in the video below!

We are proud to announce that the international Data Mesh Learning Community has recognized ACA's Data Mesh Expert, Tom De Wolf, as a valued contributor and thought leader in the Data Mesh community. This spotlight shows Tom's incredible contributions and expertise in the Data Mesh Domain and firmly positions ACA as a trailblazer in this exciting, innovative field. {% module_block module "widget_c0451ebb-10d4-4807-af8e-9586f9f32457" %}{% module_attribute "child_css" is_json="true" %}{% raw %}null{% endraw %}{% end_module_attribute %}{% module_attribute "css" is_json="true" %}{% raw %}null{% endraw %}{% end_module_attribute %}{% module_attribute "image" is_json="true" %}{% raw %}{"src":"https://25145356.fs1.hubspotusercontent-eu1.net/hubfs/25145356/imported/png/1720526472-data-mesh-socials.png","alt":"Tom De Wolf - Data Mesh MVP","size_type":null,"loading":"disabled","width":1772,"height":1181}{% endraw %}{% end_module_attribute %}{% module_attribute "isJsModule" is_json="true" %}{% raw %}true{% endraw %}{% end_module_attribute %}{% module_attribute "label" is_json="true" %}{% raw %}null{% endraw %}{% end_module_attribute %}{% module_attribute "module_id" is_json="true" %}{% raw %}201505087685{% endraw %}{% end_module_attribute %}{% module_attribute "path" is_json="true" %}{% raw %}"@projects/aca-group-project/aca-group-app/components/modules/Image"{% endraw %}{% end_module_attribute %}{% module_attribute "schema_version" is_json="true" %}{% raw %}2{% endraw %}{% end_module_attribute %}{% module_attribute "styles" is_json="true" %}{% raw %}{"aspectRatio":"16/9"}{% endraw %}{% end_module_attribute %}{% module_attribute "tag" is_json="true" %}{% raw %}"module"{% endraw %}{% end_module_attribute %}{% end_module_block %} The Data Mesh Learning Most Valuable Professional (MVP) Program honors individuals who have demonstrated exceptional expertise and commitment to sharing knowledge in an unbiased, kind, and objective manner. This recognition proves the hard work and dedication over the past few years. Tom De Wolf has been instrumental in founding the Data Mesh Belgium Meetup and actively sharing knowledge through various webinars, round tables, panel discussions, conference talks, and Slack discussions. Joining the MVP Team alongside Andrew Sharp, Amy Raygada, Eric Broda, Jean-Georges Perrin, Karin Håkansson, Wannes Rosiers, Kinda El Maarry, PhD, and Scott Hirleman, Tom De Wolf is committed to strengthening the Data Mesh community even further. If you need objective and independent advice on Data Mesh, want to exchange ideas, or dive deep into why platform engineering is essential for a Data Mesh journey and how to architect your platform, you can connect with Tom via LinkedIn or the Data Mesh Learning Slack channels. For more information on the MVP Team, who are actively promoting and educating the community on all things data mesh, visit Data Mesh Learning MVPs . Join the conversation and become part of the Data Mesh Learning Community by joining the Data Mesh Learning Slack

Last month, Tom De Wolf , Data Mesh Expert at ACA Group, delivered an insightful online webinar for the international Data Mesh community. Tom De Wolf's presentation detailed our data mesh journey within the Flemish Cultural Sector, and explained the immense added value of our Data Mesh approach, emphasizing the self-service capabilities for both data product developers and consumers. The session also touched upon the architecture, operating model, and governance of the platform. Missed the live session? No worries! You can watch the full recording here: This initiative was a collaborative effort between ACA Group, the Department of Culture, Youth and Media, and publiq vzw. Our effort also earned the Flanders Digital Award 2023 for Best Digital Transformation Project. In collaboration with the Flemish Government and publiq, we delivered a groundbreaking project. Together, we created a data-driven platform for the cultural sector, harnessing the power of Data Mesh. This platform has significantly contributed to the digital transformation of the Flemish cultural sector, showcasing an innovative approach that encourages collaboration and efficiency. Learn more about the project on our Customer Success Stories page . A big thank you to the Data Mesh Learning Community for organizing and providing this opportunity! 📺 Watch the Recording Now

4th of June 2024 - We recently hosted the third successful Data Mesh Belgium meetup at the Google office in Brussels. Partnering with Google and co-host Peter Billen, the event brought together data enthusiasts and professionals to explore the latest advancements and insights in the field of data mesh. Speakers of the third Data Mesh Belgium meetup The event featured three expert speakers , each providing unique perspectives on data mesh implementation and experiences. Steve Loh (Google) kicked-off the sessions with his talk "Implementing Data Mesh on Google Cloud: A Practical Guide." Steve delved into the principles of data mesh, and highlighted how Google Cloud services like BigQuery, Dataplex, and Looker can become building blocks when building a data mesh platform. Tom De Wolf (ACA Group) shared interesting insights from the Flemish cultural sector. His talk, "Engineering a Data Mesh Platform for an Ecosystem Across Organisations," highlighted the challenges and successes of implementing a data mesh platform that supports multiple organizations. This real-world case study underscored the potential of data mesh in driving digital transformation within the cultural sector. The presentation took the audience on a journey through the need for data mesh, the data product developer and consumer experience, how platform engineering enabled it, and how the typical data mesh operating model is mapped across organisations. Jean-Georges Perrin (AbeaData) concluded the expert talks. With his session, "We Built a Data Mesh at PayPal, Then Discovered That Data Contracts Were Essential," Jean-Georges shared valuable lessons from PayPal's data mesh journey, emphasizing the critical role of data contracts and the importance of standards like the Open Data Contract Standard (ODCS) from the Bitol project hosted by The Linux Foundation. Going from using data contracts, to defining data products, and meshing them up in a data mesh could be considered as an evolution path for your data management strategy. Having standard specifications for data contracts and data products in between the different tools enables better interoperability and composability of data mesh platforms. Successful third Data Mesh Belgium meetup The meetup was once again a great success, strengthening the awesome community of data professionals eager to share knowledge and collaborate on the future of data mesh. We look forward to seeing you at the next Data Mesh Belgium meetup! 💡 Stay informed about next meetups by joining the Data Mesh community: Join the Data Mesh Belgium community

Tune into the latest episode of Data Mesh Radio ! Where our colleague Tom De Wolf shares insights on applying Platform Engineering for Data Mesh. Listen and gain valuable insights into how ACA Group engineers a robust platform, demystifying the technical challenges of #DataMesh . 🚀 🎧 Listen to the podcast!

On May 2nd, 2024 , Tom De Wolf, expert in Data Mesh Operating Models, participated in an online roundtable hosted by the International Data Mesh Learning Community. He joined industry leaders Eric Broda, Data Strategy Specialist, and Jean-Georges Perrin, renowned author and Data Mesh advocate, to discuss next-generation operating models for data mesh journeys. Data Mesh, known for its decentralized and federated approach, presents unique challenges, especially for enterprises used to centralized data management. The roundtable focused on defining an effective data mesh operating model, addressing structuring incentives, team dynamics, and governance to ensure successful data mesh implementation. Key Discussion Points Team Structures and Interaction Modes: The need for multiple teams and their interaction modes is crucial for effective Data Mesh implementation. In line with Team Topologies terminology, data products are managed by Stream-aligned (domain) teams, while a Platform team manages the self-service platform. Initially, intense collaboration is needed to bootstrap the first version of the platform and data products. As the platform stabilizes, the interaction mode shifts to 'platform as a service,' allowing domain teams to use the self-service tools autonomously. Enabling Teams : Enabling teams plays a critical role in supporting other teams with expertise, guidance, and best practices. These include federated governance teams that promote collaboration and ensure interoperability, enterprise architect teams that guide architectural best practices, and teams dedicated to onboarding domain teams into the Data Mesh journey. Federated Governance : Federated governance is essential to stimulate collaboration and ensure smooth interoperability between various teams. This governance model helps maintain the balance between decentralized ownership of data products and centralized control of the self-service platform. Fit-for-Purpose Team Topologies : The design of team topologies must be tailored to fit the specific context and culture of an organization. For instance, in sectors with many smaller organizations, intermediary organizations might assume ownership on behalf of a group of smaller entities. Another example, larger organizations a single platform team might not be enough, there can be a need for a core platform team that collaborates with an ecosystem of technology platform teams. 📺 Rewatch the recording of the live event on YouTube. 💻 Join the ongoing conversation in the Data Mesh Learning Community Slack channel. Don't miss out on the opportunity to connect with peers by joining the Data Mesh Belgium Meetup group !

In collaboration with the Flemish Government and Publiq to deliver a groundbreaking cultural platform, the Flemish Department of Culture, Youth and Media (CJM) called on our expertise to create a data-driven platform for the cultural sector, using the power of Data Mesh. For this, CJM was nominated twice for the Flanders Digital Awards 2023 in the categories " Best Digital Transformation " and " Most Sustainable Project ." The nominees for the Flanders Digital Awards have been announced! The jury of the "Flanders Digital Awards" has decided. Eight exciting projects are competing for three awards: one for the most inclusive project, one for the most sustainable project and one for the best digital transformation project. The winners will be announced on October 25, 2023 during the nocturne of the Trefdag Vlaanderen Digitaal. ➡️ Follow this link to read the article. The jury did not have an easy task, given that there were as many as 26 entries. The jury praised the high quality of the projects, many of which came from soft sectors such as education and culture. The jury chose the most approachable and inclusive projects with long-term potential. CJM (Department of Youth, Culture and Media) has been nominated for the 2 following categories: 1. Best digital transformation project The Targetted Digital Transformation program promotes a data-driven approach in the culture sector with the UiT exchange platform. This data mesh platform is a fundamental building block for the digital transformation of the cultural sector It creates an ecosystem with the UiT exchange platform at its core, enabling faster and more efficient development of new applications, to the benefit of both cultural participants and the cultural sector. 2. Most sustainable project The Targetted Digital Transformation program encourages a data-driven approach in the cultural sector with the UiT exchange platform. This data mesh platform has a lot of long-term potential. Exchanging data is essential as many innovative services in the future will be data-driven, as in any sector. In addition, the cultural sector will manage the platform themselves. A sustainable model of a shared data platform avoids the need for every member of the cultural sector to develop their own data infrastructure. 🏆 Contest winners will be announced on Wednesday, October 25, during the nocturne of the Trefdag Vlaanderen Digitaal. We are really looking forward to it! As a partner of Publiq and CJM, we are rightly very proud of this nomination 🎉 👇🏻 Want to know more about this project? 👀 Read it in our Customer Success Stories: Customer Succes Story

On June 22, CIONET Belgium hosted an exclusive round table discussion in collaboration with Denodo, bringing together a select group of digital leaders to explore the potential of #DataMesh as a future-proof solution for scalable and decentralised data platforms. Our colleague Tom De Wolf was invited as subject matter expert. ✔️ During the round table, some interesting sub-topics were discussed: Data mesh is about thinking about data as a product and reusability of data. Data mesh is an approach that is applicable not only within an organisation, but also between companies to facilitate an ecosystem around data. Data mesh as a balancing act between decentralisation and centralisation of ownership and self-serve platform(s). There is no good or bad way, but apply the principles to the context of your company to get the ownership as close as possible with the experts on the data, and as close as possible to where the source of change is on that data. Data mesh is aimed at analytics data, but the paradigm does not exclude it to be used for also tackling the challenge of an integration landscape. Data product output ports could also be integration APIs. Can data mesh for data be compared with the impact of agile on IT? Will the way of working with data be influenced as much as agile influenced IT in general? ✔️ For its part, CIONET explains what exactly the Round Table was about: The explosion of data volumes has created an urgent need for innovative solutions to access and process large amounts of diverse data without traditional import methods. The speakers shared their insights on data mesh and its implications for data governance and management. We addressed crucial questions, such as the maturity of data mesh as a data architecture solution and its potential to replace centralised data governance systems, data warehouses, and data lakes. ✔️ Is there a need for Data Mesh and if so what? From the various talks that took place during the round table, it is clear that there is a need for the use of Data Mesh and this in different sectors. Some Sectors such as banking, energy, biopharmaceuticals, aviation, government,...all are working on Data Mesh or have it on their roadmap. More details on the event here! 😁 Tom wants to thank CIONET Belgium for the invite and also to ACA Group for the support to dive into this inspiring topic! You can join our Meetup Community through our Data Mesh Belgium Meetup