Understanding a Modern Data Stack
As the name suggests, the MDS represents a technological evolution compared to previous systems widely used in recent decades. From the development of the business data warehouse in the 1980s to the rise of cloud technology with Amazon Web Services (AWS) in the early 2000s, on-premises legacy data stacks dominated the landscape. These systems had a monolithic IT infrastructure, resulting in complex maintenance. The MDS transformed this scenario – bringing modularity and cloud-native tools. However, before we dive into the details, let’s first define what a data stack is.
A data stack is a collection of tools and services as part of an extensive technology infrastructure designed to ingest, store, transform, and serve data. It makes data accessible across an organization and is fundamental to delivering business insights through reporting and dashboards, advanced analytics, and Machine Learning (ML) applications. Figure 2.1 illustrates...