Data Management: Data Architecture (Definitions)

"Data Architecture is the design of data for use in defining the target state and the subsequent planning needed to hit the target state. Data architecture includes topics such as database design, information integration, metadata management, business semantics, data modeling, metadata workflow management, and archiving." (Martin Oberhofer et al, "Enterprise Master Data Management", 2008)

"Describes how data is organized and structured to support the development, maintenance, and use of the data by application systems. This includes guidelines and recommendations for historical retention of the data, and how the data is to be used and accessed." (Laura Reeves, "A Manager's Guide to Data Warehousing", 2009)

"the organized arrangement of components to optimize the function, performance, feasibility, cost, and/or aesthetics of an overall structure." (DAMA International, "The DAMA Dictionary of Data Management", 2011)

"The logical-data architecture describes the specific data elements held by the team in a platform-agnostic and business-friendly manner. It plots out the specific tables, fields, and relationships within the team’s data assets and is usually fully normalized to minimize redundancy and represents the highest level of design efficiency possible." (Evan Stubbs, "Delivering Business Analytics: Practical Guidelines for Best Practice", 2013)

"The physical-data architecture is the lowest level of detail in data architecture. It describes how the logical architecture is actually implemented within the data mart and describes elements by their technical (rather than business) names." (Evan Stubbs, "Delivering Business Analytics: Practical Guidelines for Best Practice", 2013)

"Defines a company-wide, uniform model of corporate data (the corporate data model). It also describes the architecture for the distribution and retention of data. This describes which data will be stored in which systems, which systems are single sources of truth for which data objects or attributes and the flow of data between the systems." (Boris Otto & Hubert Österle, "Corporate Data Quality", 2015)

"One of the layers of the enterprise architecture (EA) that focuses on the IT data architecture side, both for transactional and business intelligence IT data architecture." (David K Pham, "From Business Strategy to Information Technology Roadmap", 2016)

"The discipline, methods, and outputs related to understanding data, its meaning and relationships." (Gregory Lampshire et al, "The Data and Analytics Playbook", 2016)

"Models, policies, and guidelines that structure how data are collected, stored, used, managed, and integrated within an organization." (Jonathan Ferrar et al, "The Power of People", 2017)

"Data architecture is the structure that enables the storage, transformation, exploitation, and governance of data." (Pradeep Menon, "Data Lakehouse in Action", 2022)

"Data architecture is the process of designing and building complex data platforms. This involves taking a comprehensive view, which includes not only moving and storing data but also all aspects of the data platform. Building a well-designed data ecosystem can be transformative to a business." (Brian Lipp, "Modern Data Architectures with Python", 2023)

"A data architecture defines a high-level architectural approach and concept to follow, outlines a set of technologies to use, and states the flow of data that will be used to build your data solution to capture big data. [...] Data architecture refers to the overall design and organization of data within an information system." (James Serra, "Deciphering Data Architectures", 2024)

"Data architecture encompasses the rules, policies, models, and standards that govern data collection and how that data is then stored, managed, processed, and used within an organization’s databases and data systems." (snowflake) [source]

"Data architecture is the process by which an organization aligns its data environment with its operational goals." (Xplenty) [source]