Data Systems Architecture

Overview

Core principle: Good data system architecture balances reliability (correct operation under faults), scalability (handling growth gracefully), and maintainability (enabling productive change over time). Every architectural decision involves trade-offs between these concerns.

This skill synthesizes knowledge from three foundational texts:

• Designing Data-Intensive Applications (Kleppmann) - distributed systems, storage engines, scaling
• The Art of PostgreSQL (Fontaine) - PostgreSQL-specific patterns, SQL as programming
• PostgreSQL Query Optimization (Dombrovskaya et al.) - execution plans, performance tuning

When to Use