**Data architecture** is the discipline within [[Enterprise architecture|enterprise architecture]] concerned with the design, structure, and governance of an organization's data assets. It encompasses the models, policies, rules, and standards that define how data is collected, stored, integrated, transformed, and consumed across systems and business processes. As organizations have come to treat data as a strategic resource, data architecture has grown into a distinct professional and technical domain, closely related to [[Data management|data management]], [[Information architecture|information architecture]], and [[Systems architecture|systems architecture]]. A data architecture typically comprises multiple layers of abstraction. [[Conceptual schema|Conceptual models]] represent high-level business entities and relationships; [[Logical data model|logical models]] define data structures independently of any specific technology; [[Physical data model|physical models]] specify implementation details within particular [[Database|database]] or storage systems. Practitioners work with a range of architectural patterns, including [[Data warehouse|data warehouses]], [[Data lake|data lakes]], [[Data lakehouse|data lakehouses]], [[Data mesh|data mesh]], and [[Data fabric|data fabric]] — each reflecting different assumptions about centralization, ownership, and access. Core concerns of data architecture include [[Data integration|data integration]], [[Data quality|data quality]], [[Metadata management|metadata management]], [[Master data management|master data management]], and [[Data governance|data governance]]. Architectural decisions shape how organizations implement [[Business intelligence|business intelligence]], [[Advanced analytics|advanced analytics]], and [[Machine learning|machine learning]] pipelines, and have significant implications for [[Data security|data security]], [[Regulatory compliance|regulatory compliance]], and [[Interoperability|interoperability]]. The role of the [[Data architect|data architect]] — the professional responsible for defining and maintaining data architecture — has expanded alongside the growth of [[Big data|big data]] and [[Cloud computing|cloud]]-based data platforms, which have introduced new patterns for scalable, distributed data management.