The Greatest Reasons to use or not to use a Centralized Data Access Architecture
When developing a modern Data Platform Layer, one of the main decisions is whether to opt for centralized or decentralized data access architecture. There is no “one-fits-all” solution, both have advantages and disadvantages. A Centralized Data Access Architecture would usually mean duplicating data from the operational layer into the analytical layer and applying various transformations to data to support and speed up data analytics. Operational online transaction processing Layer , where all microservices and their operational databases are located. Analytical Data Layer , where we would have data lakes that support data Scientists' work and a data warehouse, that supports Business Intelligence. Transformations, ETL or ELT data pipelines , which are moving data from the operational layer into the analytical layer. I f we opt for a Centralized Data Access architecture, what would be the benefits and the drawbacks? CONSISTENCY : consolidating data into a central location can