Elric Sims

Architect / Engineer / Leader / Mentor

This site runs on NextJS and a custom data architecture (explained throughout this site). I have implemented these designs on Microsoft SQL, Azure, Snowflake, MySQL, and now Postgres (this site). I can explain this model in buzzwords: self-constructing, low-code, medallion + delta architecture, with dynamic row-based security; self-cleaning, self-optimizing, 99% data-driven lakehouse... that started on-prem. It combines Inmon, Kimball, knowledge graph, classification, OOP , and data vault fundamentals into the most abstract, feature encapsulated system you will ever read about.

ABOUT

When I was 12, a book and a Commadore 64 got me interested in software engineering. I ventured into Flash (Macromedia) and Dreamweaver before I hit college. In college, I took everything: VB.Net, C#.Net, Java, JavaScript, CSS/HTML, C++... any programming language they had to offer. Then: Database classes. I found my model trains, my love, what I wanted to eat sleep and breathe.

Over the years I dove into papers, Boyce and Codd, studied different architectures, and questioned everything. In my 20's I had the opportunity to work a Transim. At Transim I was able to get hands-on experience with architectures that the industry giants (Intel, Fujitsu, NXP, AMS, Panasonic, Renesas, etc) used. And every database, every table was... different. Unfortunately, that did not sit well with me. With all of these papers, theories, guidelines; how are these massive companies differing in the one area that rules the world, Data.

Then came Wellsource, and it changed me forever. I was granted the opportunity to study under a PhD and spearhead a cutting edge database architecture project, and found the answers I had been searching for. I remember some of the first concepts that went against what I saw and was taught...

A Person table should not have fields for a first, last, middle names. A NAME is a subject that we model, People have names, Organizations, Parts, and they have several Names. Pablo Picasso has so many middle names that it would break the traditional approach. We are going to create a way to store anything, and we won't need to add columns when new values come in.

This project taught me true polymorphism. That 99% of companies out there can run on the same data model / architecture. That data is very much a dot in space, a intangible concept with properties. Through abstraction and encapsulation, I created a monster. A system that cut development down by factors, one that could clean, build, secure, and optimize itself. One that allowed a single individual to manage thousands of objects with ease; one that shifted the focus from architecture to classifying data to be used in implied patterns.