The Storage Ecosystem
4. Collection & Storage
Choosing between Databases, Data Lakes, and Warehouses.
Database (RDBMS)
- Highly Structured
- PostgreSQL / MySQL
- Fast Transactions
Status: PROVISIONED
Data Lake
- Raw / Unstructured
- AWS S3 / Azure Lake
- Infinite Scale
Status: PROVISIONED
Data Warehouse
- Structured / Analytical
- Snowflake / BigQuery
- Deep Insights
Status: PROVISIONED
The Hybrid Architecture
Many modern AI companies use a Data Lakehouse architecture—combining the flexibility of a Data Lake with the structure and performance of a Data Warehouse.
Scalable
Reliable
Analytical
Why this matters
In the real world, data is messy, incomplete, and buried in multiple locations. Data Engineering is the "plumbing" that builds reliable roads for your AI to travel on.
The Architecture
Every pixel of an AI model comes from original training data. If your engineering is flawed, your model will eventually collapse due to "Technical Debt" or "Data Drift".