The data architecture community loves a good framework war. Data Fabric vs. Data Mesh is the current main event. Here’s a pragmatic take from the trenches.
The short version
Data Mesh is an organisational pattern — decentralise ownership, treat data as a product, federate governance.
Data Fabric is a technology architecture — automate integration, provide a unified semantic layer, use metadata actively.
They’re not mutually exclusive. In practice, most successful implementations use mesh principles for ownership and fabric technology for integration.