What information do you need from an analyst to determine the optimal database architecture in a system?

To determine the optimal database architecture, the following information should be obtained from the analyst:

• Data requirements: what entities and attributes will be stored, their relationships.
• Data volume and growth: approximate current data size and projected growth.
• Operation types: read/write frequency, transactional requirements.
• Performance requirements: response time, system load.
• Access features: who and how will access the data, security requirements.
• Special requirements: support for historical data, auditing, scalability, fault tolerance.
• Integrations: with which external systems will interaction occur.

This data will help choose the appropriate data model (relational, NoSQL, etc.), table structure, indexes, and scaling strategy.