This document discusses data design considerations for microservices architectures. It begins by comparing monolithic, SOA, and microservice approaches. It then covers some common challenges with microservices like distributed transactions and coordination. Key elements of microservices like service discovery, state management, and deployment are presented. The benefits of microservices like scalability and alignment with business domains are also summarized. The document dives into data architecture challenges and provides best practices around topics like decentralized data stores, transactional integrity, error handling, and choosing appropriate data storage technologies.