ℵ₁ Systemic Debt
Uncountable complexity emerges
Lack of Foreign Keys / Constraints
Not enforcing relational integrity at the schema level through foreign key constraints, unique constraints, or CHECK constraints. The database becomes...
Over-Normalized Schema with Excessive Joins
Taking database normalization to an extreme where data is split into too many tables, requiring numerous joins for basic operations. While normalizati...
Under-Normalization (God Tables)
Creating "God tables" with dozens or hundreds of columns that mix multiple entity types or business concepts. Includes anti-patterns like repeated col...
Cache-Unfriendly Schema Design
Schema designs that prevent effective caching strategies, causing database overload under normal operating conditions. This includes mixing frequently...
Replication-Unsafe Schema Design
Schema designs that don't account for distributed database replication challenges, leading to split-brain scenarios, replication lag issues, or confli...
Security Audit Trail Schema Weakness
Schemas that lack proper audit trail tables or security event logging structures, making it impossible to detect breaches, investigate incidents, or m...
Poor Data Partitioning and Hotspot Keys
Designing schemas without considering data distribution, either keeping everything monolithic or choosing partition keys that create severe hotspots. ...
Unbounded Growth (No Data Archiving)
Allowing tables to grow indefinitely without archival or cleanup strategies. Common with logs, audit records, and historical data where the assumption...
Inflexible Schema Migration
Schema design and deployment processes that make database changes extremely difficult or require downtime. Includes lack of online DDL support, huge t...
Cloud IAM Permission Overreach
Cloud IAM roles and policies configured with excessive permissions, violating the principle of least privilege. This includes EC2 instances with broad...
Healthcare Data Pipeline Resilience Weakness
Healthcare data processing systems designed without resilience mechanisms like circuit breakers, backpressure handling, or graceful degradation. These...
Third-Party Integration Security Weakness
Security vulnerabilities introduced through third-party integrations, including excessive permissions granted to vendors, lack of activity monitoring,...
Migration Backup and Recovery Weakness
Migration processes executed without verified backup and recovery capabilities. This includes untested backups, missing recovery procedures, lack of b...
Distributed Consensus Schema Weakness
Failures in distributed systems where different nodes operate with incompatible schemas, consensus rules, or protocol versions. This includes blockcha...
Monolithic Database Architecture
Architectural pattern where diverse functionalities share a single database cluster, creating resource contention, scaling limitations, and blast radi...
Configuration Schema Migration Weakness
Migration processes that leave configuration systems in inconsistent states, particularly when migrating between configuration management systems. Thi...