DATA ARCHITECTURE | BEGINNERS
Do you want to become a Data Architect?
Do these 3 things daily.
How much experience do you need to become a data architect?
- 5 years?
- 10 years?
- 15 years?
There is no correct answer!
In my view, any “data person” (anyone working in the data world as a data engineer, ETL developer, ML engineer, data analyst or a tech PM) has the potential to become a data architect.
YES, you can also become a data architect — as far as you are doing the below simple activities daily.
Remember: Small habits can help to build your long term goals.
1. Learn, Un-Learn, Re-Learn
You have to spend a reasonable amount of time daily learning new things and should be ready to un-learn some of the old concepts you picked up during your data journey.
For example - Data Redundancy and Data Duplication might sound like a crime to you. But it might be the most suitable option for some of the use cases. (Read Data-Mesh)
Be flexible, embrace the modern data stack, and accept the new principles of modern data architectures.
What should you read/watch
- Medium Blogs — Articles with Data Architecture Tag
- Youtube Video — Follow various channels by individuals as well as ISVs
2. Understand & Relate
When you learn new concepts & new tools, ensure you understand the underlying principles & relate them with the stuff you already know. This is the only way to learn new tech quickly.
For example, if you already have good knowledge of AWS — while learning Azure or GCP, understand the commonalities & differences in these services.
Check for the fundamental differences & try to understand why or what would be the reason for this difference. Does this difference make the new tech better than others in the market? How would it impact the architecture? Does it benefit the end-users?
I recently started learning GCP & learnt that the VPC in GCP can span across regions. This can help avoid the efforts to create the peering or sharing of resources across regions.
3. Apply the Concepts
And finally, just learning & understanding will not help. Try to apply these new learnings in real-life projects.
If you are not using these in your existing projects, then revisit the architecture & see how the new tech could benefit your existing architecture.
Look for case studies & observe how the modern data stack is used.
“This is my architecture” series by AWS is one of the best places for going through various case studies.
Summary
To become a data architect, you don’t need a “specific” number of years of experience.
At the same time, you cannot just become a data architect when you get tagged into a “data architect” role for a particular program.
It’s a gradual process.
The transformation from a curious Data Engineer to a well-informed Data Architect takes a lot of effort.
Just ensure that you do these 3 things daily.
- Read, Watch, Learn, Un-Learn & Re-Learn — The more you read, the more you learn.
- Understand & Relate new learnings with what you already know. This is the only way to learn new things quickly.
- Apply the concepts in actual projects. Look out for case studies and learn from them.
And finally, if you are interested in learning more about data architecture, check out my Data Architecture Series on Youtube. Link embedded below
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