Fundamentals of Metadata Management

Chapter 11. The Meta Grid Contextualized

In this chapter, we will discuss four key topics that contextualize the meta grid. First, I emphasize that you don’t build the meta grid—you uncover it. Unlike microservices and data mesh, which are consciously designed, the meta grid is a decentralized architecture that already exists; it is something to be revealed and improved, but not to be constructed from the ground up.

Next, I describe the meta grid as a nuclear architecture. Although the meta grid is small in scale, it is densely packed with potential, both in terms of energy and risk. If mismanaged, it can be as volatile as a nuclear reaction—capable of exploding if things go wrong.

We will also examine the relationship between the meta grid and other architectures, such as microservices and data mesh, which connect to the meta grid in specific, intricate ways.

Finally, we will review the technologies that support a meta grid. While the meta grid itself is not a technology, it can be augmented by various tools—from ambitious broadscale platforms to more focused visualization or management solutions.

Before we dive in, it is important to understand that you cannot simply build a meta grid.

You Don’t Build the Meta Grid—You Uncover It

In Chapter 2, I defined metadata as:

A description that is both attached to what is described and placed somewhere else in order to make what is described discoverable and manageable.

Fundamentally, metadata is defined not by what it is but by ...