Data architecture is a broad term that refers to all of the processes and methodologies that address data at rest, data in motion, data sets and how these relate to data dependent processes and applications. It includes the primary data entities and data types and sources that are essential to an organization in its data sourcing and management needs. Typically, data architecture is designed, created, deployed and managed by a data architect.

Enterprise data architecture consists of three different layers or processes:

• Conceptual/business model: Includes all data entities and provides a conceptual or semantic data model
• Logical/system model: Defines how data entities are linked and provides a logical data model
• Physical/technology model: Provides the data mechanism for a specific process and functionality, or how the actual data architecture is implemented on underlying technology infrastructure