What is the Salesforce Data Cloud architecture and how does it relate to a production org?

Salesforce Data Cloud is a multi-tenant, cloud-native Customer Data Platform (CDP) built on Hyperforce infrastructure. It runs as a separate Salesforce org but shares the same identity (Salesforce login) as the connected production org. Key architectural concepts:

1. Data Cloud Credits — the consumption-based pricing unit governing ingestion volume, identity resolution runs, and activation usage.
2. Data Cloud Org relationship — a production Salesforce CRM org is connected to the Data Cloud org via the Salesforce CRM connector, enabling bidirectional data flow.
3. Data is stored in Data Cloud's lake-house architecture (not in standard Salesforce storage).
4. All Data Cloud objects and features are accessible via the Data Cloud app within the connected org's UI.