Data Pipeline Architectures for Modern AI Modern AI work relies on data that is clean, timely, and well organized. The architecture of your data pipeline shapes model training speed, evaluation reliability, and live inference quality. A good design balances fast data for experimentation with robust, governed data for production. Teams gain confidence when data flows are clear, repeatable, and monitored.
Key building blocks Ingestion: batch and streaming sources such as ERP feeds, logs, and sensors Storage: a data lake or lakehouse with raw and curated zones Processing: ETL or ELT pipelines using SQL, Spark, or serverless tasks Serving: feature stores for model inputs and a model registry for versions Observability: quality checks, lineage tracing, and alerts Governance: access controls, retention, and compliance policies Architectural patterns ETL vs ELT: ETL cleans and transforms before landing; ELT lands raw data and transforms inside the warehouse. Choose based on data source quality and compute scale. Batch vs streaming: Batch gives reliable, periodic insights; streaming reduces latency for real-time needs. Lakehouse and data mesh: A lakehouse blends storage with warehouse-like features; data mesh assigns ownership to domain teams, improving scale and accountability. Example: a retail data pipeline A retailer collects orders, web analytics, and inventory metrics. Ingestion includes a streaming path for events and a batch path for historical data. Real-time features flow to a serving layer to power recommendations. Nightly jobs refresh aggregates and train models. A feature store keeps current features for online inference, while data lineage and quality checks run across the stack.
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