Tag Archives: Data Governance

Using SCD2 in the Bronze Layer with a Non-SCD2 Silver Layer: A Modern Data Architecture Pattern for UK Financial Services

UK Financial Services firms increasingly implement SCD2 history in the Bronze layer while providing simplified, non-SCD2 current-state views in the Silver layer. This pattern preserves full historical auditability for FCA/PRA compliance and regulatory forensics, while delivering cleaner, faster, easier-to-use datasets for analytics, BI, and data science. It separates “truth” from “insight,” improves governance, supports Data Mesh models, reduces duplicated logic, and enables deterministic rebuilds across the lakehouse. In regulated UK Financial Services today, it is the only pattern I have seen that satisfies the full, real-world constraint set with no material trade-offs.

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WTF Is SCD? A Practical Guide to Slowly Changing Dimensions

Slowly Changing Dimensions (SCDs) are how data systems manage attributes that evolve without constantly rewriting history. They determine whether you keep only the latest value, preserve full historical versions, or maintain a limited snapshot of changes. The classic SCD types (0–3, plus hybrids) define different behaviours… from never updating values, to overwriting them, to keeping every version with timestamps. The real purpose of SCDs is to make an explicit choice about how truth should behave in your analytics: what should remain fixed, what should update, and what historical context matters. Modern data platforms make tracking changes easy, but they don’t make the design decisions for you. SCDs are ultimately the backbone of reliable, temporal, reality-preserving analytics.

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Databricks vs Snowflake vs Microsoft Fabric: Positioning the Future of Enterprise Data Platforms

This article extends the Databricks vs Snowflake comparison to include Microsoft Fabric, exploring the platforms’ philosophical roots, architectural approaches, and strategic trade-offs. It positions Fabric not as a direct competitor but as a consolidation play for Microsoft-centric organisations, and introduces Microsoft Purview as the governance layer that unifies divergent estates. Drawing on real enterprise patterns where Databricks underpins engineering, Fabric drives BI adoption, and functional teams risk fragmentation, the piece outlines the “Build–Consume–Govern” model and a phased transition plan. The conclusion emphasises orchestration across platforms, not choosing a single winner, as the path to a governed, AI-ready data estate.

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Databricks vs Snowflake: A Critical Comparison of Modern Data Platforms

This article provides a critical, side-by-side comparison of Databricks and Snowflake, drawing on real-world experience leading enterprise data platform teams. It covers their origins, architecture, programming language support, workload fit, operational complexity, governance, AI capabilities, and ecosystem maturity. The guide helps architects and data leaders understand the philosophical and technical trade-offs, whether prioritising AI-native flexibility and open-source alignment with Databricks or streamlined governance and SQL-first simplicity with Snowflake. Practical recommendations, strategic considerations, and guidance by team persona equip readers to choose or combine these platforms to align with their data strategy and talent strengths.

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