Medallion Architecture Layer - Gold 1

Medallion Architecture Layer - Gold


The Gold Layer contains the most mature, highly curated data, purpose-built to solve explicit business goals, representing the highest value data assets. Data in this layer is optimized for fast reading and consumption via Business Intelligence (BI) dashboards, reporting, and production AI/ML models. The data structures are typically de-normalized (like Kimball star schemas or Inmon Data marts) to minimize joins and maximize query performance for end-users. This layer is expected to maintain high trust and high consistency, minimizing drastic day-to-day changes.



Consumption Readiness: It provides tables and views specifically designed for final consumption by business users and downstream applications, eliminating the need for complex transformations at the point of access.

High-Value Assets: The Gold Layer represents the highest value data assets ($) because the complexity to build, manage, and maintain the dependencies from the Bronze and Silver layers is encapsulated here.

AI/ML Input: Curated Gold tables (or trusted datasets tagged as Gold) are the preferred source for feeding production AI/ML models, such as those used for predictive maintenance or autonomous production control, due to their consistent quality and schema adherence.





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. Final presentation layer of projects such as Customer Analytics, Product Quality Analytics, Inventory Analytics, Customer Segmentation, Product Recommendations, Marking/Sales Analytics etc. fit in this layer. We see a lot of Kimball style star schema-based data models or Inmon style Data marts fit in this Gold Layer of the lakehouse.



Source: https://delta.io/pdfs/dldg_databricks.pdfPage: 208 • Key: leeDeltaLakeDefinitive