Using Ember Data Model

In an Ember app, is it a good idea to use data models for mapping attributes across different places in the app (in some route/controller/component, etc)

I think we need to use DS.Adapter to use models within Ember (have not tried it much though)

Are there any good practical examples of the same ? Essentially, I need it to map to server-side data models & may be match it to the XHR request payloads/JSON response..