AI, Agents, Analytics, Apps, Data and Architecture
Practical thinking for Prosumers building better decisions with AI, Agents, Analytics, Apps, and Data.
Common Acumen is a personal technology journal focused on AI, Agents, Analytics, Apps, Data platforms, and Cloud architecture. The goal is simple: make hard ideas clearer, more useful, and easier to put into practice. The new assumption is Prosumption because in modern digital, frontier firms and homes the default expectation is no longer that people are passive consumers. Instead, they are using cloud-based frontier and local AI models and AI Coding Agents to simultaneously produce (create, design, and distribute) Agents, Apps, Analytics, and Data products that they and others consume.
Core themes
What this site covers
Data platforms
Architecture that fits the system you already have
Lakehouse, integration, data agents and the reality of extending existing operational platforms into analytics and AI.
Analytics strategy
Decision-making, not dashboard theater
Thoughtful design for reporting, business intelligence, measurement, and the organizational habits that help prosumers turn data into useful judgment.
Applied AI
AI and automation with delivery constraints in view
Cloud-based and Local LLMs, modern workflows and frameworks, and where AI can add value when connected to architecture, governance, observability, and day-to-day engineering.
Start here
Recommended reading
Data Architecture and Designing for Change in the Age of Digital Transformation
A broad look at architecture choices, operating models, and the patterns that help data systems stay useful as organizations evolve.
Bring Vision to Life with Three Horizons, Data Mesh, Data Lakehouse, and Azure Cloud Scale Analytics
A strong entry point if you want the strategic framing behind the site: how horizon thinking, data architecture, and platform choices connect.
Data Mesh Architecture for an Existing Operational Platform
A pragmatic example of extending commercial applications and operational databases into an analytics platform without pretending the world starts from scratch.
Fresh writing
Recent posts
The Prosumer Is the Frontier Firm
Why Microsoft AI, Fabric, Foundry, M365, and GitHub Copilot CLI — Better Together with Databricks, Snowflake via OneLake, Delta and Iceberg — Finally Give Shadow ...
The Frontier Firm Bet
A Decision-Maker’s Case for Microsoft AI, Fabric, Foundry, and M365 — Better Together with Databricks, Snowflake via OneLake, Delta and Iceberg
Data Mesh Architecture: Extend an existing operational COTS application using cloud-based HA/DR to build out an analytics platform
Abstract
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