Data Mesh at Grab (Part II): The foundational tools behind certification

Summary

Grab’s Signals Marketplace uses three foundational platforms to make data certification operational across its data mesh: Hubble, Genchi, and the Data Contract Registry. Hubble, built on DataHub, catalogs assets, ownership, documentation, lineage, contracts, and certification status, while its event-driven engine recalculates certification as metadata and upstream health change. Genchi provides self-service observability and tests for freshness, volume, schema, completeness, and business checks; the registry manages explicit expectations between producers and consumers. Together, these signals let Hubble classify assets as Uncertified, Certified, CertifiedPlus, or Revoked, giving consumers a workflow centered on certified data rather than hearsay. The post reports that P80 datasets, the tables accounting for 80% of queries, fell by over 58% in one year after the Signals Marketplace campaign began in 2024, and positions the foundation as support for AI agents and automated analytics.

Takeaways

1. 1

   Hubble is built on open-source DataHub and uses metadata events, Kafka, and APIs to keep search, lineage, certification, and governance integrations updated as source metadata changes.

2. 2

   Certification has four conceptual states—Uncertified, Certified, CertifiedPlus, and Revoked—and evaluates ownership, documentation, lineage, contracts, runtime quality, and governance signals.

3. 3

   The post reports that P80 datasets, which account for 80% of all queries, declined by over 58% in one year after the Signals Marketplace campaign began in 2024.