Summit Knowledge
Frameworks, modules, and case studies from the architects at Summit ML. Written for the people who have to make the decisions, not just ship the tickets.
AI projects rarely fail because the model was wrong. They fail because the organization asked an Experience-layer question of a company whose lower layers could not support the answer. This module walks through the five failure modes we see most, maps each to the Pyramid layer it actually comes from, and describes what a project that is set up to succeed looks like.
Most data strategies are analytical strategies: warehouses, dashboards, and models built on copies of the business. The data that actually runs the business, the operational layer that automation, AI, and customer experiences read from, is rarely designed at all. This module draws the line between the two, explains why the warehouse cannot fix the operational layer, and sets out what designing operational data actually involves.
FrameworkA reusable worksheet for applying the Summit Architecture Pyramid to a real decision. Name the capability, locate the layer where the problem actually lives, check the layers beneath it, and only then choose a technology. Five questions, one page, used at the start of every Summit ML engagement.
Case StudyDataExpandr is a deeply technical data pipeline platform whose value is invisible in a screenshot. We built a marketing site whose hero does not describe the product but demonstrates it, with an interactive pipeline mock that makes the value proposition tangible in the first scroll.
Case StudySamsonite needed to launch a Costco Next storefront, the first of its kind on Salesforce Commerce Cloud. We added a channel without adding a foundation, integrating into the existing SFCC ecosystem and Order Management System rather than standing up something parallel.
Case StudyParkPro arrived with an idea and no system: a marketplace connecting drivers with venues, stadiums, and businesses that have parking to sell. We sequenced the greenfield build from the bottom of the Pyramid upward and reached production in six months.
Knowledge ModuleTransformation logic is executable business policy, yet it usually ends up scattered across API handlers, ETL jobs, iPaaS workflows, and application code. The Agentic Data Layer is a governed operational layer that gives that policy a first-class home: versioned, testable, observable, and able to evolve without rebuilding integrations.
Knowledge ModuleGreat software is built by making architectural decisions in the right order. The Summit Architecture Pyramid treats architecture as a hierarchy of five layers, each depending on the stability of the one beneath it, and asks at what layer a problem should actually be solved.
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