Cloud Data Architecture Design

Design a resilient multi-region architecture with edge delivery optimized for high-traffic spikes and low-latency playback.
• Implement adaptive bitrate streaming (HLS/DASH) with proper segmentation and manifest generation.
• Harden the platform for DDoS, WAF, TLS, rate-limiting, and abuse mitigation.
• Optimize costs across storage, egress, and compute without sacrificing performance.
Core deliverables:
• High-level and low-level architecture docs (diagrams, runbooks, SLOs).
• Production-ready deployments for:
• Ingest pipeline (VOD first; live optional in phase 2).
• Transcoding/packaging pipeline (multi-rendition ABR).
• Origin and mid-tier cache.
• CDN integration (single or multi-CDN, with routing logic).
• Web tier: load balancer, reverse proxy, HTTP cache.
• Observability stack (metrics, logs, tracing, alerting).
• CI/CD pipelines and IaC for reproducible environments.
• Security baseline: WAF, bot/DDoS mitigation, secret management, key rotation.
• Documentation and handover, including capacity planning and cost model.
Technical expectations:
• CDN strategy: edge caching, cache key design, TTL policy, tokenized URLs, origin shielding, and near-real-time purge.
• ABR best practices: ladder design for 4K/1080p/720p/480p, segment duration tuning, manifest generation, subtitles/thumbnails.
• Transcoding: CPU/GPU sizing and autoscaling, containerized workers, queue-based orchestration, fault tolerance.
• Storage: object storage strategy (hot/warm/cold tiers), replication policy, lifecycle policies, checksum/integrity.
• Web/app tier: Nginx/Varnish (or equivalent), health checks, sticky/sessionless design, blue/green or canary.
• Data: relational for core metadata, cache layer for hot paths, search index for discovery; pagination and rate control.
• Security & compliance foundations: access segregation, auditability, PII minimization, geo-controls, takedown workflows.
• Multi-region: failover plan, DNS/GSLB steering, regionalization for latency and regulatory constraints.
• Observability: dashboards for QoE (startup time, rebuffer ratio, bitrate), origin and CDN hit ratios, error budgets.

What you should include in your proposal:
• Relevant portfolio links to video platforms you architected or scaled (high-traffic streaming preferred).
• A brief architecture outline you would propose for phase 1 (1–2 pages max).
• Your preferred tech stack and reasoning for each layer (transcode, storage, CDN, cache, LB, security, IaC).
• Estimated timeline in phases (discovery, PoC, pilot, production).
• Ballpark budget ranges per phase and monthly run-rate estimates at baseline scale.
• Your approach to confidentiality and secure access during the build.