The Medallion Architecture in Data Engineering: A Layered Approach to Data Quality and Governance

Abstract

The medallion architecture is a new way to handle data engineering. This method simplifies how companies deal with different types of data by refining that data step by step. It's built with three levels: bronze, silver, and gold. Each level has a specific job in the data transformation process. The bronze level takes in raw data and keeps it safe, making sure to record where the data came from and other important details. Cleaning, checking, and standardization of the data is done at the silver level. This fixes any quality issues by removing duplicates and ensuring it meets business rules. The gold level then offers data that's ready for assessment and business intelligence tools to use. The way this architecture is set up allows for data to be processed quickly and in stages. It also provides governance to help with company-wide rollouts. Compared to older data warehouse systems, this architecture is more adaptable. It also provides better organization and quality control than simple data lake methods. It's a mix of both, giving flexibility in storage and structured quality management for various company needs.