You've mastered storage formats and partitioning strategies! Now let's explore how to organize all that data into a clean, manageable architecture.
Modern data platforms use layered architectures to transform raw data into business-ready insights systematically.
Engagement Message
How might companies prevent chaos when handling petabytes of data?
The most popular pattern is the medallion architecture: Bronze, Silver, and Gold layers. Each layer serves a specific purpose and has different data quality standards.
Think of it like refining crude oil into gasoline - each step adds value and removes impurities.
Engagement Message
What might be the difference between raw data and business-ready data?
The Bronze layer stores raw data exactly as it arrives - no transformations, no quality checks. This is your "single source of truth" for all incoming data.
Web logs, sensor data, database exports - everything lands here first in its original format.
Engagement Message
Why would you want to keep data in its original, untransformed state?
The Silver layer contains cleaned and standardized data. Here you fix data quality issues, apply consistent formats, and remove duplicates.
This is where "2023-01-15" and "Jan 15, 2023" both become standardized date formats.
Engagement Message
What problems might arise from having inconsistent date formats?
The Gold layer holds business-ready data - aggregated, enriched, and optimized for specific use cases. This is what analysts and dashboards actually consume.
Think monthly sales summaries, customer segmentation, or KPI calculations ready for executives.
Engagement Message
Why would business users prefer pre-calculated summaries over raw transaction data?
