Modern Data Architecture Patterns

Traditional data warehouses are often too rigid for AI workloads, while data lakes can become disorganized 'swamps'. We advocate for the Medallion Architecture (Bronze, Silver, Gold) implemented on a Lakehouse platform like Snowflake or Databricks.

Understanding when to enforce structure is critical. For operational reporting (Gold layer), schema-on-write ensures data quality. For exploratory AI research, schema-on-read provides the flexibility needed for rapid iteration.

Modern architecture allows for instant environment replication without physical data movement. This accelerates dev/test cycles and reduces costs significantly.