The Data Systems Architect

You can write SQL. This module is about where that SQL actually runs: how real data systems are built, scaled, and defended once one machine stops being enough.

Three cyan panels naming what Module 6 solves: Scale (data outgrows one machine, spread it across a cluster), Architecture (structure dictates capability, relational/JSONB/vector and one stack or many systems), and Trust (data is a liability, keep attackers out and people anonymous).

Figure 1. The module's three problems. Scale: a dataset outgrows one machine, so it spreads across a cluster and the engine you pick follows the physics of that scale. Architecture: how you structure data (relational, JSONB, vector; one system or several) decides what the business can build on it. Trust: at scale the data is also a liability, so you defend it from attackers and protect the people inside it. Each panel names the pages that work through it.

We follow the scale journey from the smallest sensible setup upward.

DB Design for a Startup → Start with one boring, safe Postgres node and see how far it carries you.