How to implement a data mesh for Cloud Storage and BigQuery data sharing?
Your organization is modernizing their IT services and migrating to Google Cloud. You need to organize the data that will be stored in Cloud Storage and BigQuery. You need to enable a data mesh approach to share the data between sales, product design, and marketing departments. What should you do?
Community Votes
84% of anonymous learners picked answer D. Votes are pick records left by other test-takers — they are not the verified answer.
Community Insight
This question tests knowledge of Google Cloud data mesh services; the trap is choosing Analytics Hub, which is simpler but primarily supports BigQuery, while Dataplex covers both BigQuery and Cloud Storage.
To implement a data mesh when sharing Cloud Storage and BigQuery data across departments on Google Cloud, the recommended approach is to create multiple projects for departmental applications and use Dataplex. Community consensus favors Dataplex over Analytics Hub because it supports both Cloud Storage and BigQuery assets.
The most common wrong answer is B, which uses Analytics Hub; it is a popular choice because it is simpler and directly enables data sharing, but it doesn't fully support Cloud Storage assets, making it insufficient for this scenario.
Community Discussion (11 comments)
- Decentralized ownership: Each department controls its data lake, aligning with the core principle of data ownership in a data mesh. - Self-service data access: Departments can create and manage their own Cloud Storage buckets and BigQuery datasets within their data lakes, enabling self-service data access. - Interdepartmental sharing: Dataplex facilitates data sharing by enabling departments to publish their data products from their data lakes, making it easily discoverable and usable by other departments.
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Expert Analysis
Why the Answer Is Correct
Dataplex is purpose-built for data mesh on Google Cloud. It supports managing data lakes across projects, domains, and zones, and its assets can be Cloud Storage buckets or BigQuery datasets. By creating multiple projects for each department's applications, you decentralize data ownership—a core data mesh principle—and then use Dataplex to share and govern data across departments. Comment [1] correctly emphasizes decentralized ownership and self-service data access, while comment [5] notes that this is "pure data mesh, which is what Dataplex has been built for."
Why the Other Options Are Wrong
Option B, which suggests using Analytics Hub, is often chosen because it is straightforward, but Analytics Hub focuses on sharing BigQuery datasets and lacks full support for Cloud Storage assets in this context—a critical flaw since the question explicitly includes Cloud Storage. Options A and C fail because they propose either one project per department or a single organization-wide project, which does not provide the multi-project isolation and decentralized ownership that a data mesh requires. Comment [7] highlights that B is "impossible due to the lack of GCS support in Analytics Hub," and comment [6] reinforces that the question's inclusion of GCS assets makes Dataplex the better choice.
Community Comment Notes
Most commenters correctly choose D. Comment [1] outlines how Dataplex aligns with data mesh principles: each department controls its data lake, enabling self-service access and interdepartmental sharing. Comment [6] and [7] point out that Analytics Hub is primarily for BigQuery and cannot handle Cloud Storage, which is why B is unsuitable. Comment [3] and [8] argue for B based on simplicity, but that argument overlooks the requirement to support both GCS and BigQuery. The debate centers on Dataplex vs Analytics Hub, and the weight of comments and official documentation strongly favors Dataplex.
Official Reference
Exam Strategy
Look for keywords like 'Cloud Storage' and 'BigQuery' in data mesh questions; if both are present, Dataplex is usually the right answer. Remember that Analytics Hub is more limited to BigQuery, so it will be selected for questions that only mention BigQuery data exchanges.