ServiceNow Podcasts Netflix’s Unified Data Architecture: Model Once, Represent Everywhere with Alex Bertails
Nov 19, 2025
In this engaging discussion, Alex Bertails, a software engineer at Netflix, shares insights on the Unified Data Architecture (UDA). He explains how UDA integrates RDF knowledge graphs with domain models to streamline data governance. The conversation delves into the limitations of existing solutions and the innovative shift towards decentralized governance. Alex highlights practical applications like PDM taxonomy management and showcases the surprising success of UDA's self-validation. He emphasizes the need for a unified conceptual layer to enhance data interactions across organizations.
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Conceptual RDF Unifies All Representations
- Netflix built a Unified Data Architecture (UDA) as a conceptual RDF knowledge graph tying domain models, mappings, and data containers together.
- This single conceptual layer lets them model once and project representations everywhere (GraphQL, Avro, SQL, Java).
Two Productized Uses Prove Value
- UDA powers two main platforms: PDM for taxonomy/primary data management and Sphere for business discovery and query generation.
- Those apps automatically provision APIs, data sources, and queries from the shared domain models.
Make Governance A Self-Describing Capability
- Treat governance as a capability rather than a fixed policy; let domains define their own rules as domain models.
- Bootstrap governance by making the metamodel (UPPER) self-describing and validating itself with the same tooling you expose to users.