Introduction

In the previous chapter, we covered the fundamentals of data storage. In this chapter, we'll dive a little deeper into the architecture of Artificial Intelligence (AI) solutions, starting with the requirements that define them. This chapter will be a mixture of theoretical content and hands-on exercises, with real-life examples where AI is actively used.

Let's say you are a solution architect involved in the design of a new data lake. There are a lot of technology choices to be made that would have an impact on the people involved and on the long-term operations of the organization. It is great to have a set of requirements at the start of the project that each decision could be based on. Storing data essentially means writing data to disk or memory so that it is safe, secure, findable, and retrievable. There are many ways to store data: on-premise, in the cloud, on disk, in a database, in memory, and so on. Each way fulfills a set of requirements to a greater...