ATEC Data Mesh 101: Finding, Accessing, and Using Your Data

Most people in ATEC know data exists somewhere. They just can't find it, can't access it, or don't know what they're looking at when they do. That's not a knowledge gap about data science. It's a gap about the specific systems ATEC built to solve a real problem: two-thirds of the organization's test and evaluation networks were isolated, which meant data that should have been enterprise-wide was effectively invisible. This course explains what was built to fix that and how to use it. You'll start with the reorganization that created the Digital Modernization Directorate and trace the logic from continuous evaluation campaigns all the way through to the cloud environments, data planes, and enterprise services that make up the Data Mesh today. You'll learn the difference between IL5 and IL6 environments, why that distinction affects what you can see and where, and what Level 1 raw data versus Level 3 processed data actually means for your work. You'll also get into the Common Reference Model: what it is, why UUIDs matter more than strings, and how to pull authoritative data through its APIs. The back half of the course is hands-on. You'll see how to get into the Azure Virtual Desktop, what tools are available on day one, and how Hermes applies metadata to cloud data so you can search across the enterprise. By the end, you'll understand not just what the Data Mesh contains but how to find data in it, how governance councils keep it trustworthy, and how the whole system connects to outcomes like Next Gen C2.