Architect, these three words sound like a big cow. The career development path of a programmer is generally like this: entry rookie - IT specialist - IT expert - IT senior engineer - architect.
But did you know that there are also architects in the data field, who help companies acquire, process and utilize complex data every day, and use the power of data to find solutions to problems, including making decisions, deploying strategies, optimizing operating costs, etc.
Lifting the veil on data architecture
Simply put, data architecture is an organizational framework that aligns with business processes and standardizes the collection, storage, transformation, distribution, and use of data. The framework is designed to protect sensitive data while allowing authorized persons to access the most relevant parts of data at the right time.
Someone in the industry defines a data architecture as "a set of rules, policies, and models that determine what types of data are collected, and how that data is used, processed, and stored in database systems."
The entire framework is created based on the principles of data architecture, which treats data as an asset defined according to preset parameters, accessible, sharable, manageable and protectable.
So here comes the question: Who builds this important data architecture? It's the data architect who conceptualizes and designs the data architecture based on business requirements!
What is a data architect?
A data architect is an expert in developing an organization's data strategy, including data quality standards, data flow within the organization, and data security. They often have the vision to drive business requirements into technical requirements, and they are considered the key link between business and technology. As enterprises put more emphasis on data, data architects are in short supply in the market.
According to a survey by recruitment website Recruiter|, as high as 96.1% of architect talents are scrambled by enterprises, and every enterprise hopes to use data to gain a strategic advantage. The survey also predicts that the demand for data architects will increase at a rate of 15.94% in the next few years.
The salary of data architects is very high, with an average of 33.6K, and the salary range of 68% of data architects is in the high salary range of 300,000-500,000/month.
How to become a data architect? Below we take a look at the job description of a data architect and the basic skills required for this role.
What does a data architect do?
According to DAMA International's Data Management Body of Knowledge, a data architect "provides a standard common business vocabulary, expresses strategic needs, outlines high-level integration designs that meet those needs, and aligns with corporate strategy and related business architecture."
Data architects understand business requirements, study existing data structures, and create blueprints to build an accessible, secure, and business-policy data integration framework. A data architect also defines the processes involved in testing and maintaining a database.
The terms "data architect" and "data engineer" are often misunderstood, and to make matters worse, they are often used interchangeably. Actually the role of a data architect is very different from that of a data engineer. Data architects need to consider all data sources related to business operations and grasp the data as a whole in the business. Data engineers are responsible for building and testing sustainable data architectures for enterprises to facilitate data search and retrieval. Data architects work closely with data engineers to build solid data architectures.
Data Architect Responsibilities
- A data architect is a visionary leader in an organization. Its roles and responsibilities include:
- Develop and implement an overall data strategy aligned with business processes. The strategy includes data model design, database development standards, implementation and management of data warehousing and data analysis systems.
- Identify internal and external data sources and develop a data management plan that aligns with the organization's data strategy.
- Collaborate with cross-functional teams and vendors to ensure the smooth running of enterprise data systems.
- Manage end-to-end data architecture, from selecting platforms, designing technical architectures, developing applications, to final testing and implementing proposed solutions.
- Leverage technologies such as Hadoop to plan and execute big data solutions. In fact, big data architects need complete lifecycle management of Hadoop solutions.
- Define and manage the flow of data and the dissemination of information within an organization.
- Integrate technology functions to ensure data accessibility, accuracy and security.
- Conduct ongoing audits of data management system performance and improve where necessary, promptly reporting any breaches or vulnerabilities to stakeholders
What skills do data architects need?
Some must-have skills for a data architect include:
- Knowledge of system development, including system development life cycle, project management methods and requirements, design and testing techniques, etc.
- Proficient in data modeling and design, including SQL development and database management
- NLP and text analytics, machine learning
- Ability to implement common data management and reporting techniques, as well as the fundamentals of columnar and NoSQL databases, data visualization, unstructured data, and predictive analytics.
- Data mining, visualization and machine learning skills
- Knowledge of Python, C/C++, Java and Perl programming languages
In addition, data architects need to coordinate and collaborate with users, system designers, and developers on a day-to-day basis. Therefore, soft skills like effective communication, team management, problem solving, and leadership are desirable traits for data architects.
How to become a data architect?
- Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering or related field
- Courses should cover data management, programming, application design, big data development, systems analysis, and technical architecture
If you're a recent graduate aspiring to become a data architect, you can start with internships in network administration and application design and work your way up to a database administrator role. Progress through your career as a data architect by learning skills related to database administration, data modeling, and data warehousing.
For senior roles, companies often prefer master's degree candidates with years of experience in data design, management and storage.
While the skills required for data architects cannot be covered by a single course, it is important to learn related skills on the job. You can also try to enrich yourself by taking some additional certification studies.
Data architects or big data architects are the most scarce and popular talents in the market today, are you ready? Join the Simplilearn St. Pronounce Data Science Bootcamp program for more advanced Big Data certification courses and gain competitive skills. This project is designed and delivered in cooperation with IBM. By systematically learning and mastering the deep knowledge of Hadoop ecosystem and big data engineering tools, and gaining practical experience in data modeling and data application, you can ride the trend in the big data wave.