Medallion Architecture

A medallion architecture is a data design pattern used to logically organize data in a  lakehouse, with the goal of incrementally and progressively improving the structure and quality of data as it flows through each layer of the architecture (from Bronze ⇒ Silver ⇒ Gold layer tables). Medallion architectures are sometimes also referred to as “multi-hop” architectures.

The Bronze layer is where we land all the data from external source systems. The table structures in this layer correspond to the source system table structures ==“as-is,"== along with any additional metadata columns that capture the load date/time, process ID, etc.

In the Silver layer of the lakehouse, the data from the Bronze layer is matched, merged, conformed and cleansed (“just-enough”) so that the Silver layer can provide an ==“Enterprise view”== of all its key business entities, concepts and transactions.

Data in the Gold layer of the lakehouse is typically organized in consumption-ready ==“project-specific”== databases. The Gold layer is for reporting and uses more de-normalized and read-optimized data models with fewer joins. The final layer of data transformations and data quality rules are applied here.