---
title: "Data Model"
url: "https://docs.unified.to/concepts/glossary/data_model"
description: "Unified.to documentation"
generated_at: "2026-05-21T18:12:27.205Z"
---
# Glossary: Data Model[Glossary](/concepts/glossary)

A **data model** is a representation of data elements describing how that data is structured, related, and used. It provides a framework for defining the data elements and their relationships, which are crucial for designing databases, data warehouses, and other data systems.

The key components of a data model are:

* **Entities:** Representations of objects or concepts that are important to an organization or process, such as a customer, business transaction, email or chat message, or generative AI prompt.
* **Attributes:** Properties or characteristics of entities. For example, a customer entity would have properties like a name, email address, and phone number.
* **Relationships:** These describe how entities are related or connected to each other, or how they interact with each other. Relationships can be one-to-one, one-to-many, or many-to-many. For example, a customer can place multiple orders, which would be represented by a one-to-many relationship between the corresponding customer entity and many order entities.
* **Keys:** Unique identifiers for entities. There are _primary keys_, which unique identify an entity, and _foreign keys_, which link entities of different types.