---
title: InfluxDB internals
description: Learn about internal systems and implementation details of InfluxDB Cloud Dedicated.
url: https://docs.influxdata.com/influxdb3/cloud-dedicated/reference/internals/
estimated_tokens: 624
product: InfluxDB Cloud Dedicated
version: cloud-dedicated
---

# InfluxDB internals

### [Arrow Flight SQL](/influxdb3/cloud-dedicated/reference/internals/arrow-flightsql/)

The InfluxDB SQL implementation uses **Arrow Flight SQL** to query InfluxDB and return results.

### [InfluxDB Cloud Dedicated security](/influxdb3/cloud-dedicated/reference/internals/security/)

InfluxDB Cloud Dedicated is built on industry-standard security practices and principles.

### [InfluxDB Cloud Dedicated data durability](/influxdb3/cloud-dedicated/reference/internals/durability/)

Data written to InfluxDB Cloud Dedicated progresses through multiple stages to ensure durability, optimized performance and storage, and efficient querying. Configuration options at each stage affect system behavior, balancing reliability and resource usage. InfluxDB Cloud Dedicated replicates all time series data in the storage tier across multiple availability zones within a cloud region and automatically creates backups that can be used to restore data in the event of a node failure or data corruption.

### [Data retention in InfluxDB Cloud Dedicated](/influxdb3/cloud-dedicated/reference/internals/data-retention/)

InfluxDB Cloud Dedicated enforces database retention periods at query time and, to optimize storage, routinely deletes [Parquet](https://parquet.apache.org/) files containing only expired data.

### [InfluxDB 3 storage engine architecture](/influxdb3/cloud-dedicated/reference/internals/storage-engine/)

The InfluxDB 3 storage engine is a real-time, columnar database optimized for time series data that supports infinite tag cardinality, real-time queries, and is optimized to reduce storage cost.

### [Query plans](/influxdb3/cloud-dedicated/reference/internals/query-plan/)

A query plan is a sequence of steps that the InfluxDB Querier devises and executes to calculate the result of a query in the least amount of time. InfluxDB query plans include DataFusion and InfluxDB logical plan and execution plan nodes for scanning, deduplicating, filtering, merging, and sorting data.