IBM Data Architecture

Designing the systems that store and move data

This IBM Professional Certificate sits a level up from day-to-day data engineering — it's about designing the storage, integration, and governance strategy that everything else gets built on top of. Expect coverage of data warehousing, data lakes, and the tradeoffs between relational and NoSQL approaches.

What it covers

• Relational databases, SQL, and NoSQL fundamentals
• Data pipelines and Extract, Transform, Load (ETL) processes
• Data warehousing, data lakes, and big data tooling like Apache Spark
• Data governance and integration strategy

Set at a beginner level, it doesn't require prior architecture experience, though comfort with basic data concepts helps. With 17,000+ students enrolled, it's a more specialized program than IBM's general Data Engineering certificate, worth it for learners aiming at architecture and design decisions.