#68 The Build vs. Buy Dilemma of Data Platforms - Interview w/ Doron Porat

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Provided as a free resource by Data Mesh Understanding / Scott Hirleman. Get in touch with Scott on LinkedIn if you want to chat data mesh.

Transcript for this episode (link) provided by Starburst. See their Data Mesh Summit recordings here and their great data mesh resource center here

Doron's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/porat-doron/

Our journey towards an open data platform: https://medium.com/yotpoengineering/our-journey-towards-an-open-data-platform-8cfac98ef9f5

A simplified, lightweight ETL Framework based on Apache Spark by Yotpo: https://github.com/YotpoLtd/metorikku

The Data Swamp (in Hebrew): https://open.spotify.com/show/5YDdtRhp1RVw7r5fbYFtPQ?si=5x4HzOyhTX6n46HqY5kV6w&nd=1

In this episode, Scott interviewed Doron Porat, a Data Infrastructure Leader at the SaaS company Yotpo.

Some crucial points Doron made:

1) Be kind to yourself when you make mistakes - it's worse to stagnate so don't be afraid of change and making choices

2) Build versus buy is always tough but don't let your ego get in the way and push you towards building everything

3) If you do buy, build a close relationship with your vendors to help influence the roadmap and have an outlet if you are having issues

4) A data platform team's job is to drive usage as usage means creating value - drive towards that and set your KPIs around platform usage

5) There will likely be many different types of consumers of your data platform - work to improve / optimize the user experience for most folks

Doron is a technologist at heart so for each decision she instinctually wants to build instead of buy. And at the start of building out the data platform for Yotpo, that was typically her decision. But as the demands for more and more capabilities from the platform, the increasing ubiquity and quality/scalability of as-a-service offerings, and the growing need to drive usage and developer happiness instead of manage cool tech, she started to consume more and more managed services.

When you are building out the platform, vendors, in the long run, can often better serve your needs because they have a whole lot...