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Service Area

Data Strategy &
Architecture

Your data infrastructure is either a competitive advantage or a liability. We help you design, build, and evolve the platforms and pipelines that make your data actually useful — at scale, and built to last.

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The Challenge

Most data problems are architecture problems in disguise

Companies don't usually come to us and say "I need a data architecture." They come to us and say: "Our reports take three days to run." Or "Every team has a different number for the same metric." Or "We've been trying to use AI for two years and nothing has stuck."

Nine times out of ten, the root cause is a data infrastructure that was never designed to keep up with the business. Siloed systems, fragile pipelines, no single source of truth, and data that nobody fully trusts.

Our data strategy and architecture work is about getting ahead of that — building the right foundation so everything downstream (analytics, AI, reporting, product features) can actually work.

73%
of data initiatives fail to deliver business value — usually due to infrastructure, not the technology itself
8 hrs
average time data engineers spend per week on pipeline maintenance in poorly architected environments
3–6 mo
typical time to first business value from a well-scoped architecture engagement

Types of Projects

What a Data Strategy & Architecture engagement looks like

Every engagement starts with where you are. Here are the most common types of work we take on — and the outcomes each is designed to deliver.

🏗️
Greenfield

New Data Platform Build

For companies that have outgrown spreadsheets and ad-hoc databases, or that have never built a proper data foundation. We design and implement a modern data stack from scratch — warehouse, transformation layer, and orchestration — tailored to your team size and growth trajectory.

What you get
  • Fully operational data warehouse on your chosen cloud (Snowflake, BigQuery, or Redshift)
  • dbt transformation layer with documented, tested models
  • Orchestrated pipelines with monitoring and alerting
  • Runbook and training so your team can own it
☁️
Migration

Cloud & Platform Migration

Moving off legacy on-premise infrastructure, a monolithic data warehouse, or a fragmented set of tools. We plan and execute migrations that minimize disruption to the business while modernizing your stack — with zero tolerance for data loss or extended downtime.

What you get
  • Migration strategy with rollback plan and risk mitigation
  • Phased cutover with business continuity throughout
  • Cost modeling showing pre/post TCO comparison
  • Validated data integrity post-migration
🗂️
Assessment

Data Platform Audit & Roadmap

For companies with an existing data stack that isn't performing — slow queries, unreliable pipelines, mounting technical debt, or a team that's constantly firefighting. We audit what you have, identify root causes, and produce a prioritized roadmap with clear ROI for each item.

What you get
  • Documented audit of current state with severity ratings
  • Prioritized 90-day and 12-month improvement roadmap
  • Quick wins identified and scoped for immediate execution
  • Presentation-ready summary for executive stakeholders
🔀
Architecture

Pipeline Architecture & Redesign

When your data pipelines are brittle, slow, or impossible to debug, the right answer isn't patching — it's rethinking. We redesign your ingestion, transformation, and delivery layers using modern patterns (ELT, event streaming, change data capture) to give you pipelines you can actually trust.

What you get
  • Redesigned pipeline architecture with documented data contracts
  • Improved latency, reliability, and observability
  • Reduced maintenance overhead for your engineering team
  • Automated testing and data quality checks
🕸️
Design

Data Mesh & Domain Architecture

For larger organizations where centralized data teams have become bottlenecks, or where multiple business units need to own and publish their own data. We design federated data architectures that decentralize ownership without sacrificing discoverability or governance.

What you get
  • Domain ownership model tailored to your org structure
  • Data product standards and interface contracts
  • Federated governance framework that scales
  • Pilot domain implementation as proof of concept
🔍
Strategy

Tech Stack Assessment & Selection

Overwhelmed by vendor options? Unsure whether to buy or build? We provide objective, vendor-neutral guidance on tool selection across the entire data stack — warehouses, transformation tools, orchestration, ingestion, and BI — based on your specific requirements, team, and budget.

What you get
  • Requirements framework built around your actual use cases
  • Scored vendor comparison matrix with recommendation
  • TCO analysis including implementation and maintenance cost
  • Proof-of-concept plan for finalist tools if needed

Tech Ecosystem

Tools & platforms we work with

We're tool-agnostic and always recommend based on your situation — not vendor relationships.

Data Warehouses & Lakehouses

Snowflake Google BigQuery Amazon Redshift Databricks Azure Synapse DuckDB

Transformation & Orchestration

dbt Core / Cloud Apache Airflow Prefect Dagster Apache Spark SQLMesh

Ingestion & Streaming

Fivetran Airbyte Apache Kafka AWS Kinesis Debezium (CDC) Stitch

Cloud Infrastructure

AWS Google Cloud Microsoft Azure Terraform Docker / Kubernetes

Engagement Models

How we structure this work

We adapt the engagement model to your situation. Here are the three most common formats.

Common Questions

What people ask before starting

We start with a discovery conversation — no prep required. What sounds like "a mess" usually has a few root causes once you look closely. Before writing a single line of code or drawing a single architecture diagram, we make sure we understand the business context: what decisions need to be made, who's making them, and what data they're missing to make them well.
We work alongside your team, not around them. The goal isn't to parachute in and leave — it's to build something your team can own and extend. We're explicit about knowledge transfer from day one, and we won't make architectural decisions your team doesn't understand and agree with.
No. We're entirely vendor-neutral. We have tools we like and have used extensively, but the right stack depends on your team's skills, your existing cloud commitments, your budget, and your scale. We'll tell you what we'd actually use in your situation — not what pays the highest referral fee.
That's a real concern and something I hear often. The difference is that I'm not a strategy-only firm — I'm a practitioner who has built the things I recommend. If a build engagement, the deliverable is working production infrastructure, not a deck. If it's a roadmap engagement, every recommendation is scoped and costed, not aspirational. We agree on what "done" means before we start.

Related Services

What often comes next

Let's talk about your data infrastructure

No commitment. Just a candid conversation about where you are and whether we're the right fit to help.