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# Distributed data architecture
Learn how Netdata's distributed data architecture enables us to store metrics on the edge nodes for security, high performance and scalability.
This way, it helps you collect and store per-second metrics from any number of nodes.
Every node in your infrastructure, whether it's one or a thousand, stores the metrics it collects.
Netdata Cloud bridges the gap between many distributed databases by _centralizing the interface_ you use to query and
visualize your nodes' metrics. When you [look at charts in Netdata Cloud](https://github.com/netdata/netdata/blob/master/docs/cloud/visualize/interact-new-charts.md)
, the metrics values are queried directly from that node's database and securely streamed to Netdata Cloud, which
proxies them to your browser.
Netdata's distributed data architecture has a number of benefits:
- **Performance**: Every query to a node's database takes only a few milliseconds to complete for responsiveness when
viewing dashboards or using features
like [Metric Correlations](https://github.com/netdata/netdata/blob/master/docs/cloud/insights/metric-correlations.md).
- **Scalability**: As your infrastructure scales, install the Netdata Agent on every new node to immediately add it to
your monitoring solution without adding cost or complexity.
- **1-second granularity**: Without an expensive centralized data lake, you can store all of your nodes' per-second
metrics, for any period of time, while keeping costs down.
- **No filtering or selecting of metrics**: Because Netdata's distributed data architecture allows you to store all
metrics, you don't have to configure which metrics you retain. Keep everything for full visibility during
troubleshooting and root cause analysis.
- **Easy maintenance**: There is no centralized data lake to purchase, allocate, monitor, and update, removing
complexity from your monitoring infrastructure.
## Ephemerality of metrics
The ephemerality of metrics plays an important role in retention. In environments where metrics collection is dynamic and
new metrics are constantly being generated, we are interested about 2 parameters:
1. The **expected concurrent number of metrics** as an average for the lifetime of the database. This affects mainly the
storage requirements.
2. The **expected total number of unique metrics** for the lifetime of the database. This affects mainly the memory
requirements for having all these metrics indexed and available to be queried.
## Granularity of metrics
The granularity of metrics (the frequency they are collected and stored, i.e. their resolution) is significantly
affecting retention.
Lowering the granularity from per second to every two seconds, will double their retention and half the CPU requirements
of the Netdata Agent, without affecting disk space or memory requirements.
## Long-term metrics storage with Netdata
Any node running the Netdata Agent can store long-term metrics for any retention period, given you allocate the
appropriate amount of RAM and disk space.
Read our document on changing [how long Netdata stores metrics](https://github.com/netdata/netdata/blob/master/docs/store/change-metrics-storage.md) on your nodes for
details.
You can also stream between nodes using [streaming](https://github.com/netdata/netdata/blob/master/streaming/README.md), allowing to replicate databases and create
your own centralized data lake of metrics, if you choose to do so.
While a distributed data architecture is the default when monitoring infrastructure with Netdata, you can also configure
its behavior based on your needs or the type of infrastructure you manage.
To archive metrics to an external time-series database, such as InfluxDB, Graphite, OpenTSDB, Elasticsearch,
TimescaleDB, and many others, see details on [integrating Netdata via exporting](https://github.com/netdata/netdata/blob/master/docs/export/external-databases.md).
When you use the database engine to store your metrics, you can always perform a quick backup of a node's
`/var/cache/netdata/dbengine/` folder using the tool of your choice.
## Does Netdata Cloud store my metrics?
Netdata Cloud does not store metric values.
To enable certain features, such as [viewing active alarms](https://github.com/netdata/netdata/blob/master/docs/monitor/view-active-alarms.md)
or [filtering by hostname/service](https://github.com/netdata/netdata/blob/master/docs/cloud/war-rooms.md), Netdata Cloud does
store configured alarms, their status, and a list of active collectors.
Netdata does not and never will sell your personal data or data about your deployment.
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