A Quick Introduction to Medallion Architecture

Read the blog to gain a quick understanding of medallion architecture and why it’s important for your business in 2024 and beyond.

Share this on:

Data is growing by leaps and bounds. Research suggests that global data creation is expected to reach more than 180 zettabytes by 2025. You have great data volumes – in different shapes and sizes, flowing into your organization. You need to find a way a way to make sense of it all. Plus, data comes to you at a very fast speed. You need to efficiently keep up with all this information.

Moreover, the data you receive is from various sources. How do you make sure your data is reliable? Enter the medallion architecture! This is your one-stop solution to all your data quality, management, and organization challenges.

The blog will help you gain a quick understanding of medallion architecture and why it’s important for your business in 2024 and beyond.

What is Medallion Architecture?

A medallion architecture, also known as multi-hop architecture, is a popular data design pattern that’s coined by Databricks – the leading Data & AI Company. It allows you to manage data within a Lakehouse in a structured, logical, and efficient manner. Your data is categorized into three layers: Bronze Layer, Silver Layer, and Gold layer.

When Microsoft released their data platform, Microsoft Data Fabric, in 2023, they adopted the medallion architecture as their guiding principle for data storage solutions.

Simply put, medallion architecture means your data design blueprint to organize data within your data Lakehouse architecture. Your data passes through different stages of validation and transformation before being stored for analysis.

Layers of Medallion Architecture

Bronze Layer (Raw Data)

This is the first layer of the medallion architecture. You can consider it as the initial point where raw data in different formats like JASON and CSV, is ingested and stored. Data in the bronze layer is unvalidated. Your data is saved without being processed or transformed. The data table structures in this layer mirror the source system structure tables in their original form.

They are supported by extra metadata like source file names and columns that capture the load date/time, process ID, and more.

This enables better discoverability of the source dataset. Data lineage is effectively maintained. The data ingested in the bronze layer grows over time and can be a mix of streaming and batch transactions.

Silver Layer (Filtered, Cleansed Data)

This is the second layer of the medallion architecture. Your raw data from the bronze layer goes through data cleansing, deduplication, and transformation processes. The silver layer prepares your data and makes it more usable for downstream analysis, ad-hoc reporting, and machine learning.

The data is matched, merged, and cleansed, to provide an enterprise view that contains critical business entities, concepts, and transactions.

Data accuracy is ensured with the implementation of data validation rules. The silver phase may also have defined schemas and additional metadata.

Gold Layer (Business-Ready Data)

Gold layer is the final layer of the medallion architecture. Your data is refined, structured, and enriched to make it suitable for consumption and meet your unique analytics requirements.

It’s transformed into formats that optimize query performance. It’s denormalized to make querying easier and simplified.

This way, you have business-ready data for analytics, data science, and machine learning operations. In this layer, your data is also merged with other data sources for you to gain deeper, actionable insights.

The Delta Lake Medallion Architecture by Databricks

Benefits of Medallion Architecture

If advanced analytics and machine learning enablement are your goals in 2024 – you must consider medallion architecture for your business. It is a modern, flexible data architecture that provides you with a systematic framework to organize, manage, transform, and consume your data.

Data Cleanliness is achieved in a logical sequence

Straightforward Data Model & Streamlined Data Quality Progression from raw to curated layers

Downstream Tables can be recreated from raw sources

Data Governance is unlocked with data lineage and access controls in all the layers.

Get Started with LumenData

LumenData is a trusted Databricks Consulting Partner and can help you build, deploy, and implement flexible data architecture like medallion architecture and enable self-service analytics. We have customizable offerings for Lakehouse consumption, including Data Warehousing, Data Engineering, Data Streaming, and Data Science & ML.

We also provide data warehouse accelerator, cost governance accelerator for workload optimization, security & audit, and large language model accelerators– all designed to achieve a ‘go-live’ in weeks, not months. Get in touch with us today.

About LumenData

LumenData is a leading provider of Enterprise Data Management, Cloud, and Analytics solutions and helps businesses handle data silos, discover their potential, and prepare for end-to-end digital transformation. Founded in 2008, the company is headquartered in Santa Clara, California, with locations in India.

With 150+ Technical and Functional Consultants, LumenData forms strong client partnerships to drive high-quality outcomes. Their work across multiple industries and with prestigious clients like Versant Health, Boston Consulting Group, FDA, Department of Labor, Kroger, Nissan, Autodesk, Bayer, Bausch & Lomb, Citibank, Credit Suisse, Cummins, Gilead, HP, Nintendo, PC Connection, Starbucks, University of Colorado, Weight Watchers, KAO, HealthEdge, Amylyx, Brinks, Xylem, Clara Analytics, and Royal Caribbean Group, speaks to their capabilities.

For media inquiries, please contact: marketing@lumendata.com.

Check Out Our Resources

Databricks, Technology