Summary In this episode of the Data Engineering Podcast Lukas Schulte, co-founder and CEO of SDF, explores the development and capabilities of this fast and expressive SQL transformation tool. From its origins as a solution for addressing data privacy, governance, and quality concerns in modern data management, to its unique features like static analysis and type correctness, Lucas dives into what sets SDF apart from other tools like DBT and SQL Mesh. Tune in for insights on building a business around a developer tool, the importance of community and user experience in the data engineering ecosystem, and plans for future development, including supporting Python models and enhancing execution capabilities. Announcements Hello and welcome to the Data Engineering Podcast, the show about modern data managementImagine catching data issues before they snowball into bigger problems. That’s what Datafold’s new Monitors do. With automatic monitoring for cross-database data diffs, schema changes, key metrics, and custom data tests, you can catch discrepancies and anomalies in real time, right at the source. Whether it’s maintaining data integrity or preventing costly mistakes, Datafold Monitors give you the visibility and control you need to keep your entire data stack running smoothly. Want to stop issues before they hit production? Learn more at dataengineeringpodcast.com/datafold today!Your host is Tobias Macey and today I'm interviewing Lukas Schulte about SDF, a fast and expressive SQL transformation tool that understands your schemaInterview IntroductionHow did you get involved in the area of data management?Can you describe what SDF is and the story behind it?What's the story behind the name?What problem are you solving with SDF?dbt has been the dominant player for SQL-based transformations for several years, with other notable competition in the form of SQLMesh. Can you give an overview of the venn diagram for features and functionality across SDF, dbt and SQLMesh?Can you describe the design and implementation of SDF?How have the scope and goals of the project changed since you first started working on it?What does the development experience look like for a team working with SDF?How does that differ between the open and paid versions of the product?What are the features and functionality that SDF offers to address intra- and inter-team collaboration?One of the challenges for any second-mover technology with an established competitor is the adoption/migration path for teams who have already invested in the incumbent (dbt in this case). How are you addressing that barrier for SDF?Beyond the core migration path of the direct functionality of the incumbent product is the amount of tooling and communal knowledge that grows up around that product. How are you thinking about that aspect of the current landscape?What is your governing principle for what capabilities are in the open core and which go in the paid product?What are the most interesting, innovative, or unexpected ways that you have seen SDF used?What are the most interesting, unexpected, or challenging lessons that you have learned while working on SDF?When is SDF the wrong choice?What do you have planned for the future of SDF?Contact Info LinkedInParting Question From your perspective, what is the biggest gap in the tooling or technology for data management today?Links SDFSemantic Data Warehouseasdf-vmdbtSoftware Linting)SQLMeshPodcast EpisodeCoalescePodcast EpisodeApache IcebergPodcast EpisodeDuckDB Podcast Episode SDF Classifiersdbt Semantic Layerdbt expectationsApache DatafusionIbisThe intro and outro music is from The Hug by The Freak Fandango Orchestra / CC BY-SA

Summary Airbyte is one of the most prominent platforms for data movement. Over the past 4 years they have invested heavily in solutions for scaling the self-hosted and cloud operations, as well as the quality and stability of their connectors. As a result of that hard work, they have declared their commitment to the future of the platform with a 1.0 release. In this episode Michel Tricot shares the highlights of their journey and the exciting new capabilities that are coming next. Announcements Hello and welcome to the Data Engineering Podcast, the show about modern data managementYour host is Tobias Macey and today I'm interviewing Michel Tricot about the journey to the 1.0 launch of Airbyte and what that means for the projectInterview IntroductionHow did you get involved in the area of data management?Can you describe what Airbyte is and the story behind it?What are some of the notable milestones that you have traversed on your path to the 1.0 release?The ecosystem has gone through some significant shifts since you first launched Airbyte. How have trends such as generative AI, the rise and fall of the "modern data stack", and the shifts in investment impacted your overall product and business strategies?What are some of the hard-won lessons that you have learned about the realities of data movement and integration?What are some of the most interesting/challenging/surprising edge cases or performance bottlenecks that you have had to address?What are the core architectural decisions that have proven to be effective?How has the architecture had to change as you progressed to the 1.0 release?A 1.0 version signals a degree of stability and commitment. Can you describe the decision process that you went through in committing to a 1.0 version?What are the most interesting, innovative, or unexpected ways that you have seen Airbyte used?What are the most interesting, unexpected, or challenging lessons that you have learned while working on Airbyte?When is Airbyte the wrong choice?What do you have planned for the future of Airbyte after the 1.0 launch?Contact Info LinkedInParting Question From your perspective, what is the biggest gap in the tooling or technology for data management today?Closing Announcements Thank you for listening! Don't forget to check out our other shows. Podcast.init covers the Python language, its community, and the innovative ways it is being used. The AI Engineering Podcast is your guide to the fast-moving world of building AI systems.Visit the site to subscribe to the show, sign up for the mailing list, and read the show notes.If you've learned something or tried out a project from the show then tell us about it! Email [email protected] with your story.Links AirbytePodcast EpisodeAirbyte CloudAirbyte Connector BuilderSinger ProtocolAirbyte ProtocolAirbyte CDKModern Data StackELTVector DatabasedbtFivetranPodcast EpisodeMeltanoPodcast EpisodedltReverse ETLGraphRAGAI Engineering Podcast EpisodeThe intro and outro music is from The Hug by The Freak Fandango Orchestra / CC BY-SA

Summary As data architectures become more elaborate and the number of applications of data increases, it becomes increasingly challenging to locate and access the underlying data. Gravitino was created to provide a single interface to locate and query your data. In this episode Junping Du explains how Gravitino works, the capabilities that it unlocks, and how it fits into your data platform. Announcements Hello and welcome to the Data Engineering Podcast, the show about modern data managementYour host is Tobias Macey and today I'm interviewing Junping Du about Gravitino, an open source metadata service for a unified view of all of your schemasInterview IntroductionHow did you get involved in the area of data management?Can you describe what Gravitino is and the story behind it?What problems are you solving with Gravitino?What are the methods that teams have relied on in the absence of Gravitino to address those use cases?What led to the Hive Metastore being the default for so long?What are the opportunities for innovation and new functionality in the metadata service?The documentation suggests that Gravitino has overlap with a number of tool categories such as table schema (Hive metastore), metadata repository (Open Metadata), data federation (Trino/Alluxio). What are the capabilities that it can completely replace, and which will require other systems for more comprehensive functionality?What are the capabilities that you are explicitly keeping out of scope for Gravitino?Can you describe the technical architecture of Gravitino?How have the design and scope evolved from when you first started working on it?Can you describe how Gravitino integrates into an overall data platform?In a typical day, what are the different ways that a data engineer or data analyst might interact with Gravitino?One of the features that you highlight is centralized permissions management. Can you describe the access control model that you use for unifying across underlying sources?What are the most interesting, innovative, or unexpected ways that you have seen Gravitino used?What are the most interesting, unexpected, or challenging lessons that you have learned while working on Gravitino?When is Gravitino the wrong choice?What do you have planned for the future of Gravitino?Contact Info LinkedInGitHubParting Question From your perspective, what is the biggest gap in the tooling or technology for data management today?Closing Announcements Thank you for listening! Don't forget to check out our other shows. Podcast.init covers the Python language, its community, and the innovative ways it is being used. The AI Engineering Podcast is your guide to the fast-moving world of building AI systems.Visit the site to subscribe to the show, sign up for the mailing list, and read the show notes.If you've learned something or tried out a project from the show then tell us about it! Email [email protected] with your story.Links GravitinoHadoopDatastratoPyTorchRayData FabricHiveIcebergPodcast EpisodeHive MetastoreTrinoOpenMetadataPodcast EpisodeAlluxioAtlanPodcast EpisodeSparkThriftThe intro and outro music is from The Hug by The Freak Fandango Orchestra / CC BY-SA

Summary In this episode of the Data Engineering Podcast, host Tobias Macey welcomes back Chris Berg, CEO of DataKitchen, to discuss his ongoing mission to simplify the lives of data engineers. Chris explains the challenges faced by data engineers, such as constant system failures, the need for rapid changes, and high customer demands. Chris delves into the concept of DataOps, its evolution, and the misappropriation of related terms like data mesh and data observability. He emphasizes the importance of focusing on processes and systems rather than just tools to improve data engineering workflows. Chris also introduces DataKitchen's open-source tools, DataOps TestGen and DataOps Observability, designed to automate data quality validation and monitor data journeys in production. Announcements Hello and welcome to the Data Engineering Podcast, the show about modern data managementData lakes are notoriously complex. For data engineers who battle to build and scale high quality data workflows on the data lake, Starburst is an end-to-end data lakehouse platform built on Trino, the query engine Apache Iceberg was designed for, with complete support for all table formats including Apache Iceberg, Hive, and Delta Lake. Trusted by teams of all sizes, including Comcast and Doordash. Want to see Starburst in action? Go to dataengineeringpodcast.com/starburst and get $500 in credits to try Starburst Galaxy today, the easiest and fastest way to get started using Trino.Your host is Tobias Macey and today I'm interviewing Chris Bergh about his tireless quest to simplify the lives of data engineersInterview IntroductionHow did you get involved in the area of data management?Can you describe what DataKitchen is and the story behind it?You helped to define and popularize "DataOps", which then went through a journey of misappropriation similar to "DevOps", and has since faded in use. What is your view on the realities of "DataOps" today?Out of the popularized wave of "DataOps" tools came subsequent trends in data observability, data reliability engineering, etc. How have those cycles influenced the way that you think about the work that you are doing at DataKitchen?The data ecosystem went through a massive growth period over the past ~7 years, and we are now entering a cycle of consolidation. What are the fundamental shifts that we have gone through as an industry in the management and application of data?What are the challenges that never went away?You recently open sourced the dataops-testgen and dataops-observability tools. What are the outcomes that you are trying to produce with those projects?What are the areas of overlap with existing tools and what are the unique capabilities that you are offering?Can you talk through the technical implementation of your new obserability and quality testing platform?What does the onboarding and integration process look like?Once a team has one or both tools set up, what are the typical points of interaction that they will have over the course of their workday?What are the most interesting, innovative, or unexpected ways that you have seen dataops-observability/testgen used?What are the most interesting, unexpected, or challenging lessons that you have learned while working on promoting DataOps?What do you have planned for the future of your work at DataKitchen?Contact Info LinkedInParting Question From your perspective, what is the biggest gap in the tooling or technology for data management today?Links DataKitchenPodcast EpisodeNASADataOps ManifestoData Reliability EngineeringData ObservabilitydbtDevOps Enterprise SummitBuilding The Data Warehouse by Bill Inmon (affiliate link)dataops-testgen, dataops-observabilityFree Data Quality and Data Observability CertificationDatabricksDORA MetricsDORA for dataThe intro and outro music is from The Hug by The Freak Fandango Orchestra / CC BY-SA

Summary Data contracts are both an enforcement mechanism for data quality, and a promise to downstream consumers. In this episode Tom Baeyens returns to discuss the purpose and scope of data contracts, emphasizing their importance in achieving reliable analytical data and preventing issues before they arise. He explains how data contracts can be used to enforce guarantees and requirements, and how they fit into the broader context of data observability and quality monitoring. The discussion also covers the challenges and benefits of implementing data contracts, the organizational impact, and the potential for standardization in the field.

Announcements Hello and welcome to the Data Engineering Podcast, the show about modern data managementData lakes are notoriously complex. For data engineers who battle to build and scale high quality data workflows on the data lake, Starburst is an end-to-end data lakehouse platform built on Trino, the query engine Apache Iceberg was designed for, with complete support for all table formats including Apache Iceberg, Hive, and Delta Lake. Trusted by teams of all sizes, including Comcast and Doordash. Want to see Starburst in action? Go to dataengineeringpodcast.com/starburst and get $500 in credits to try Starburst Galaxy today, the easiest and fastest way to get started using Trino.At Outshift, the incubation engine from Cisco, they are driving innovation in AI, cloud, and quantum technologies with the powerful combination of enterprise strength and startup agility. Their latest innovation for the AI ecosystem is Motific, addressing a critical gap in going from prototype to production with generative AI. Motific is your vendor and model-agnostic platform for building safe, trustworthy, and cost-effective generative AI solutions in days instead of months. Motific provides easy integration with your organizational data, combined with advanced, customizable policy controls and observability to help ensure compliance throughout the entire process. Move beyond the constraints of traditional AI implementation and ensure your projects are launched quickly and with a firm foundation of trust and efficiency. Go to motific.ai today to learn more!Your host is Tobias Macey and today I'm interviewing Tom Baeyens about using data contracts to build a clearer API for your dataInterview IntroductionHow did you get involved in the area of data management?Can you describe the scope and purpose of data contracts in the context of this conversation?In what way(s) do they differ from data quality/data observability?Data contracts are also known as the API for data, can you elaborate on this?What are the types of guarantees and requirements that you can enforce with these data contracts?What are some examples of constraints or guarantees that cannot be represented in these contracts?Are data contracts related to the shift-left?Data contracts are also known as the API for data, can you elaborate on this?The obvious application of data contracts are in the context of pipeline execution flows to prevent failing checks from propagating further in the data flow. What are some of the other ways that these contracts can be integrated into an organization's data ecosystem?How did you approach the design of the syntax and implementation for Soda's data contracts?Guarantees and constraints around data in different contexts have been implemented in numerous tools and systems. What are the areas of overlap in e.g. dbt, great expectations?Are there any emerging standards or design patterns around data contracts/guarantees that will help encourage portability and integration across tooling/platform contexts?What are the most interesting, innovative, or unexpected ways that you have seen data contracts used?What are the most interesting, unexpected, or challenging lessons that you have learned while working on data contracts at Soda?When are data contracts the wrong choice?What do you have planned for the future of data contracts?Contact Info LinkedInParting Question From your perspective, what is the biggest gap in the tooling or technology for data management today?Closing Announcements Thank you for listening! Don't forget to check out our other shows. Podcast.init covers the Python language, its community, and the innovative ways it is being used. The AI Engineering Podcast is your guide to the fast-moving world of building AI systems.Visit the site to subscribe to the show, sign up for the mailing list, and read the show notes.If you've learned something or tried out a project from the show then tell us about it! Email [email protected] with your story.Links SodaPodcast EpisodeJBossData ContractAirflowUnit TestingIntegration TestingOpenAPIGraphQLCircuit Breaker PatternSodaCLSoda Data ContractsData MeshGreat Expectationsdbt Unit TestsOpen Data ContractsODCS == Open Data Contract StandardODPS == Open Data Product SpecificationThe intro and outro music is from The Hug by The Freak Fandango Orchestra / CC BY-SA

Summary Generative AI has rapidly gained adoption for numerous use cases. To support those applications, organizational data platforms need to add new features and data teams have increased responsibility. In this episode Lior Gavish, co-founder of Monte Carlo, discusses the various ways that data teams are evolving to support AI powered features and how they are incorporating AI into their work. Announcements Hello and welcome to the Data Engineering Podcast, the show about modern data managementData lakes are notoriously complex. For data engineers who battle to build and scale high quality data workflows on the data lake, Starburst is an end-to-end data lakehouse platform built on Trino, the query engine Apache Iceberg was designed for, with complete support for all table formats including Apache Iceberg, Hive, and Delta Lake. Trusted by teams of all sizes, including Comcast and Doordash. Want to see Starburst in action? Go to dataengineeringpodcast.com/starburst and get $500 in credits to try Starburst Galaxy today, the easiest and fastest way to get started using Trino.Your host is Tobias Macey and today I'm interviewing Lior Gavish about the impact of AI on data engineersInterview IntroductionHow did you get involved in the area of data management?Can you start by clarifying what we are discussing when we say "AI"?Previous generations of machine learning (e.g. deep learning, reinforcement learning, etc.) required new features in the data platform. What new demands is the current generation of AI introducing?Generative AI also has the potential to be incorporated in the creation/execution of data pipelines. What are the risk/reward tradeoffs that you have seen in practice?What are the areas where LLMs have proven useful/effective in data engineering?Vector embeddings have rapidly become a ubiquitous data format as a result of the growth in retrieval augmented generation (RAG) for AI applications. What are the end-to-end operational requirements to support this use case effectively?As with all data, the reliability and quality of the vectors will impact the viability of the AI application. What are the different failure modes/quality metrics/error conditions that they are subject to?As much as vectors, vector databases, RAG, etc. seem exotic and new, it is all ultimately shades of the same work that we have been doing for years. What are the areas of overlap in the work required for running the current generation of AI, and what are the areas where it diverges?What new skills do data teams need to acquire to be effective in supporting AI applications?What are the most interesting, innovative, or unexpected ways that you have seen AI impact data engineering teams?What are the most interesting, unexpected, or challenging lessons that you have learned while working with the current generation of AI?When is AI the wrong choice?What are your predictions for the future impact of AI on data engineering teams?Contact Info LinkedInParting Question From your perspective, what is the biggest gap in the tooling or technology for data management today?Closing Announcements Thank you for listening! Don't forget to check out our other shows. Podcast.init covers the Python language, its community, and the innovative ways it is being used. The AI Engineering Podcast is your guide to the fast-moving world of building AI systems.Visit the site to subscribe to the show, sign up for the mailing list, and read the show notes.If you've learned something or tried out a project from the show then tell us about it! Email [email protected] with your Links Monte CarloPodcast EpisodeNLP == Natural Language ProcessingLarge Language ModelsGenerative AIMLOpsML EngineerFeature StoreRetrieval Augmented Generation (RAG)LangchainThe intro and outro music is from The Hug by The Freak Fandango Orchestra / CC BY-SA

Summary In this episode Praveen Gujar, Director of Product at LinkedIn, talks about the intricacies of product management for data and analytical platforms. Praveen shares his journey from Amazon to Twitter and now LinkedIn, highlighting his extensive experience in building data products and platforms, digital advertising, AI, and cloud services. He discusses the evolving role of product managers in data-centric environments, emphasizing the importance of clean, reliable, and compliant data. Praveen also delves into the challenges of building scalable data platforms, the need for organizational and cultural alignment, and the critical role of product managers in bridging the gap between engineering and business teams. He provides insights into the complexities of platformization, the significance of long-term planning, and the necessity of having a strong relationship with engineering teams. The episode concludes with Praveen offering advice for aspiring product managers and discussing the future of data management in the context of AI and regulatory compliance.

Announcements Hello and welcome to the Data Engineering Podcast, the show about modern data managementData lakes are notoriously complex. For data engineers who battle to build and scale high quality data workflows on the data lake, Starburst is an end-to-end data lakehouse platform built on Trino, the query engine Apache Iceberg was designed for, with complete support for all table formats including Apache Iceberg, Hive, and Delta Lake. Trusted by teams of all sizes, including Comcast and Doordash. Want to see Starburst in action? Go to dataengineeringpodcast.com/starburst and get $500 in credits to try Starburst Galaxy today, the easiest and fastest way to get started using Trino.Your host is Tobias Macey and today I'm interviewing Praveen Gujar about product management for data and analytical platformsInterview IntroductionHow did you get involved in the area of data management?Product management is typically thought of as being oriented toward customer facing functionality and features. What is involved in being a product manager for data systems?Many data-oriented products that are customer facing require substantial technical capacity to serve those use cases. How does that influence the process of determining what features to provide/create?investment in technical capacity/platformsidentifying groupings of features that can be served by a common platform investmentmanaging organizational pressures between engineering, product, business, finance, etc.What are the most interesting, innovative, or unexpected ways that you have seen "Data Products & Platforms @ Big-tech" used?What are the most interesting, unexpected, or challenging lessons that you have learned while working on "Building Data Products & Platforms for Big-tech"?When is "Data Products & Platforms @ Big-tech" the wrong choice?What do you have planned for the future of "Data Products & Platforms @ Big-tech"?Contact Info LinkedInWebsiteParting Question From your perspective, what is the biggest gap in the tooling or technology for data management today?Closing Announcements Thank you for listening! Don't forget to check out our other shows. Podcast.init covers the Python language, its community, and the innovative ways it is being used. The AI Engineering Podcast is your guide to the fast-moving world of building AI systems.Visit the site to subscribe to the show, sign up for the mailing list, and read the show notes.If you've learned something or tried out a project from the show then tell us about it! Email [email protected] with your story.Links DataHubPodcast EpisodeRAG == Retrieval Augmented GenerationThe intro and outro music is from The Hug by The Freak Fandango Orchestra / CC BY-SA

Summary Postgres is one of the most widely respected and liked database engines ever. To make it even easier to use for developers to use, Nikita Shamgunov decided to makee it serverless, so that it can scale from zero to infinity. In this episode he explains the engineering involved to make that possible, as well as the numerous details that he and his team are packing into the Neon service to make it even more attractive for anyone who wants to build on top of Postgres. Announcements Hello and welcome to the Data Engineering Podcast, the show about modern data managementData lakes are notoriously complex. For data engineers who battle to build and scale high quality data workflows on the data lake, Starburst is an end-to-end data lakehouse platform built on Trino, the query engine Apache Iceberg was designed for, with complete support for all table formats including Apache Iceberg, Hive, and Delta Lake. Trusted by teams of all sizes, including Comcast and Doordash. Want to see Starburst in action? Go to dataengineeringpodcast.com/starburst and get $500 in credits to try Starburst Galaxy today, the easiest and fastest way to get started using Trino.Your host is Tobias Macey and today I'm interviewing Nikita Shamgunov about his work on making Postgres a serverless database at Neon.Interview IntroductionHow did you get involved in the area of data management?Can you describe what Neon is and the story behind it?The ecosystem around Postgres is large and varied. What are the pain points that you are trying to address with Neon? What does it mean for a database to be serverless?What kinds of products and services are unlocked by making Postgres a serverless database?How does your vision for Neon compare/contrast with what you know of PlanetScale?Postgres is known for having a large ecosystem of plugins that add a lot of interesting and useful features, but the storage layer has not been as easily extensible historically. How have architectural changes in recent Postgres releases enabled your work on Neon?What are the core pieces of engineering that you have had to complete to make Neon possible?How have the design and goals of the project evolved since you first started working on it?The separation of storage and compute is one of the most fundamental promises of the cloud. What new capabilities does that enable in Postgres?How does the branching functionality change the ways that development teams are able to deliver and debug features?Because the storage is now a networked system, what new performance/latency challenges does that introduce? How have you addressed them in Neon?Anyone who has ever operated a Postgres instance has had to tackle the upgrade process. How does Neon address that process for end users?The rampant growth of AI has touched almost every aspect of computing, and Postgres is no exception. How does the introduction of pgvector and semantic/similarity search functionality impact the adoption and usage patterns of Postgres/Neon?What new challenges does that introduce for you as an operator and business owner?What are the lessons that you learned from MemSQL/SingleStore that have been most helpful in your work at Neon?What are the most interesting, innovative, or unexpected ways that you have seen Neon used?What are the most interesting, unexpected, or challenging lessons that you have learned while working on Neon?When is Neon the wrong choice? Postgres?What do you have planned for the future of Neon?Contact Info @nikitabase on TwitterLinkedInParting Question From your perspective, what is the biggest gap in the tooling or technology for data management today?Closing Announcements Thank you for listening! Don't forget to check out our other shows. Podcast.init covers the Python language, its community, and the innovative ways it is being used. The Machine Learning Podcast helps you go from idea to production with machine learning.Visit the site to subscribe to the show, sign up for the mailing list, and read the show notes.If you've learned something or tried out a project from the show then tell us about it! Email [email protected] with your story.Links NeonPostgreSQLNeon GithubPHPMySQLSQL ServerSingleStorePodcast EpisodeAWS AuroraKhosla VenturesYugabyteDBPodcast EpisodeCockroachDBPodcast EpisodePlanetScalePodcast EpisodeClickhousePodcast EpisodeDuckDBPodcast EpisodeWAL == Write-Ahead LogPgBouncerPureStoragePaxos)HNSW IndexIVF Flat IndexRAG == Retrieval Augmented GenerationAlloyDBNeon Serverless DriverDevinmagic.devThe intro and outro music is from The Hug by The Freak Fandango Orchestra / CC BY-SA

Summary This episode features an insightful conversation with Petr Janda, the CEO and founder of Synq. Petr shares his journey from being an engineer to founding Synq, emphasizing the importance of treating data systems with the same rigor as engineering systems. He discusses the challenges and solutions in data reliability, including the need for transparency and ownership in data systems. Synq's platform helps data teams manage incidents, understand data dependencies, and ensure data quality by providing insights and automation capabilities. Petr emphasizes the need for a holistic approach to data reliability, integrating data systems into broader business processes. He highlights the role of data teams in modern organizations and how Synq is empowering them to achieve this. Announcements Hello and welcome to the Data Engineering Podcast, the show about modern data managementData lakes are notoriously complex. For data engineers who battle to build and scale high quality data workflows on the data lake, Starburst is an end-to-end data lakehouse platform built on Trino, the query engine Apache Iceberg was designed for, with complete support for all table formats including Apache Iceberg, Hive, and Delta Lake. Trusted by teams of all sizes, including Comcast and Doordash. Want to see Starburst in action? Go to dataengineeringpodcast.com/starburst and get $500 in credits to try Starburst Galaxy today, the easiest and fastest way to get started using Trino.Your host is Tobias Macey and today I'm interviewing Petr Janda about Synq, a data reliability platform focused on leveling up data teams by supporting a culture of engineering rigorInterview IntroductionHow did you get involved in the area of data management?Can you describe what Synq is and the story behind it? Data observability/reliability is a category that grew rapidly over the past ~5 years and has several vendors focused on different elements of the problem. What are the capabilities that you saw as lacking in the ecosystem which you are looking to address?Operational/infrastructure engineers have spent the past decade honing their approach to incident management and uptime commitments. How do those concepts map to the responsibilities and workflows of data teams? Tooling only plays a small part in SLAs and incident management. How does Synq help to support the cultural transformation that is necessary?What does an on-call rotation for a data engineer/data platform engineer look like as compared with an application-focused team?How does the focus on data assets/data products shift your approach to observability as compared to a table/pipeline centric approach?With the focus on sharing ownership beyond the boundaries on the data team there is a strong correlation with data governance principles. How do you see organizations incorporating Synq into their approach to data governance/compliance?Can you describe how Synq is designed/implemented? How have the scope and goals of the product changed since you first started working on it?For a team who is onboarding onto Synq, what are the steps required to get it integrated into their technology stack and workflows?What are the types of incidents/errors that you are able to identify and alert on? What does a typical incident/error resolution process look like with Synq?What are the most interesting, innovative, or unexpected ways that you have seen Synq used?What are the most interesting, unexpected, or challenging lessons that you have learned while working on Synq?When is Synq the wrong choice?What do you have planned for the future of Synq?Contact Info LinkedInSubstackParting Question From your perspective, what is the biggest gap in the tooling or technology for data management today?Closing Announcements Thank you for listening! Don't forget to check out our other shows. Podcast.init covers the Python language, its community, and the innovative ways it is being used. The Machine Learning Podcast helps you go from idea to production with machine learning.Visit the site to subscribe to the show, sign up for the mailing list, and read the show notes.If you've learned something or tried out a project from the show then tell us about it! Email [email protected] with your story.Links SynqIncident ManagementSLA == Service Level AgreementData GovernancePodcast EpisodePagerDutyOpsGenieClickhousePodcast EpisodedbtPodcast EpisodeSQLMeshPodcast EpisodeThe intro and outro music is from The Hug by The Freak Fandango Orchestra / CC BY-SA

Summary

Data lakehouse architectures have been gaining significant adoption. To accelerate adoption in the enterprise Microsoft has created the Fabric platform, based on their OneLake architecture. In this episode Dipti Borkar shares her experiences working on the product team at Fabric and explains the various use cases for the Fabric service.

Announcements

Hello and welcome to the Data Engineering Podcast, the show about modern data management Data lakes are notoriously complex. For data engineers who battle to build and scale high quality data workflows on the data lake, Starburst is an end-to-end data lakehouse platform built on Trino, the query engine Apache Iceberg was designed for, with complete support for all table formats including Apache Iceberg, Hive, and Delta Lake. Trusted by teams of all sizes, including Comcast and Doordash. Want to see Starburst in action? Go to dataengineeringpodcast.com/starburst and get $500 in credits to try Starburst Galaxy today, the easiest and fastest way to get started using Trino. Your host is Tobias Macey and today I'm interviewing Dipti Borkar about her work on Microsoft Fabric and performing analytics on data withou

Interview

Introduction How did you get involved in the area of data management? Can you describe what Microsoft Fabric is and the story behind it? Data lakes in various forms have been gaining significant popularity as a unified interface to an organization's analytics. What are the motivating factors that you see for that trend? Microsoft has been investing heavily in open source in recent years, and the Fabric platform relies on several open components. What are the benefits of layering on top of existing technologies rather than building a fully custom solution?

What are the elements of Fabric that were engineered specifically for the service? What are the most interesting/complicated integration challenges?

How has your prior experience with Ahana and Presto informed your current work at Microsoft? AI plays a substantial role in the product. What are the benefits of embedding Copilot into the data engine?

What are the challenges in terms of safety and reliability?

What are the most interesting, innovative, or unexpected ways that you have seen the Fabric platform used? What are the most interesting, unexpected, or challenging lessons that you have learned while working on data lakes generally, and Fabric specifically? When is Fabric the wrong choice? What do you have planned for the future of data lake analytics?

Contact Info

LinkedIn

Parting Question

From your perspective, what is the biggest gap in the tooling or technology for data management today?

Closing Announcements

Thank you for listening! Don't forget to check out our other shows. Podcast.init covers the Python language, its community, and the innovative ways it is being used. The Machine Learning Podcast helps you go from idea to production with machine learning. Visit the site to subscribe to the show, sign up for the mailing list, and read the show notes. If you've learned something or tried out a project from the show then tell us about it! Email [email protected] with your story.

Links

Microsoft Fabric Ahana episode DB2 Distributed Spark Presto Azure Data MAD Landscape

Podcast Episode ML Podcast Episode

Tableau dbt Medallion Architecture Microsoft Onelake ORC Parquet Avro Delta Lake Iceberg

Podcast Episode

Hudi

Podcast Episode

Hadoop PowerBI

Podcast Episode

Velox Gluten Apache XTable GraphQL Formula 1 McLaren

The intro and outro music is from The Hug by The Freak Fandango Orchestra / CC BY-SA Sponsored By: Starburst:

This episode is brought to you by Starburst - an end-to-end data lakehouse platform for data engineers who are battling to build and scale high quality data pipelines on the data lake. Powered by T

Summary

Stripe is a company that relies on data to power their products and business. To support that functionality they have invested in Trino and Iceberg for their analytical workloads. In this episode Kevin Liu shares some of the interesting features that they have built by combining those technologies, as well as the challenges that they face in supporting the myriad workloads that are thrown at this layer of their data platform.

Announcements

Hello and welcome to the Data Engineering Podcast, the show about modern data management Data lakes are notoriously complex. For data engineers who battle to build and scale high quality data workflows on the data lake, Starburst is an end-to-end data lakehouse platform built on Trino, the query engine Apache Iceberg was designed for, with complete support for all table formats including Apache Iceberg, Hive, and Delta Lake. Trusted by teams of all sizes, including Comcast and Doordash. Want to see Starburst in action? Go to dataengineeringpodcast.com/starburst and get $500 in credits to try Starburst Galaxy today, the easiest and fastest way to get started using Trino. Your host is Tobias Macey and today I'm interviewing Kevin Liu about his use of Trino and Iceberg for Stripe's data lakehouse

Interview

Introduction How did you get involved in the area of data management? Can you describe what role Trino and Iceberg play in Stripe's data architecture?

What are the ways in which your job responsibilities intersect with Stripe's lakehouse infrastructure?

What were the requirements and selection criteria that led to the selection of that combination of technologies?

What are the other systems that feed into and rely on the Trino/Iceberg service?

what kinds of questions are you answering with table metadata

what use case/team does that support

comparative utility of iceberg REST catalog What are the shortcomings of Trino and Iceberg? What are the most interesting, innovative, or unexpected ways that you have seen Iceberg/Trino used? What are the most interesting, unexpected, or challenging lessons that you have learned while working on Stripe's data infrastructure? When is a lakehouse on Trino/Iceberg the wrong choice? What do you have planned for the future of Trino and Iceberg at Stripe?

Contact Info

Substack LinkedIn

Parting Question

From your perspective, what is the biggest gap in the tooling or technology for data management today?

Closing Announcements

Thank you for listening! Don't forget to check out our other shows. Podcast.init covers the Python language, its community, and the innovative ways it is being used. The Machine Learning Podcast helps you go from idea to production with machine learning. Visit the site to subscribe to the show, sign up for the mailing list, and read the show notes. If you've learned something or tried out a project from the show then tell us about it! Email [email protected] with your story.

Links

Trino Iceberg Stripe Spark Redshift Hive Metastore Python Iceberg Python Iceberg REST Catalog Trino Metadata Table Flink

Podcast Episode

Tabular

Podcast Episode

Delta Table

Podcast Episode

Databricks Unity Catalog Starburst AWS Athena Kevin Trinofest Presentation Alluxio

Podcast Episode

Parquet Hudi Trino Project Tardigrade Trino On Ice

The intro and outro music is from The Hug by The Freak Fandango Orchestra / CC BY-SA Sponsored By: Starburst:

This episode is brought to you by Starburst - an end-to-end data lakehouse platform for data engineers who are battling to build and scale high quality data pipelines on the data lake. Powered by Trino, the query engine Apache Iceberg was designed for, Starburst is an open platform with support for all table formats including Apache Iceberg, Hive, and Delta Lake.

Trusted by the teams at Comcast and Doordash, Starburst del

Summary

Streaming data processing enables new categories of data products and analytics. Unfortunately, reasoning about stream processing engines is complex and lacks sufficient tooling. To address this shortcoming Datorios created an observability platform for Flink that brings visibility to the internals of this popular stream processing system. In this episode Ronen Korman and Stav Elkayam discuss how the increased understanding provided by purpose built observability improves the usefulness of Flink.

Announcements

Hello and welcome to the Data Engineering Podcast, the show about modern data management This episode is supported by Code Comments, an original podcast from Red Hat. As someone who listens to the Data Engineering Podcast, you know that the road from tool selection to production readiness is anything but smooth or straight. In Code Comments, host Jamie Parker, Red Hatter and experienced engineer, shares the journey of technologists from across the industry and their hard-won lessons in implementing new technologies. I listened to the recent episode "Transforming Your Database" and appreciated the valuable advice on how to approach the selection and integration of new databases in applications and the impact on team dynamics. There are 3 seasons of great episodes and new ones landing everywhere you listen to podcasts. Search for "Code Commentst" in your podcast player or go to dataengineeringpodcast.com/codecomments today to subscribe. My thanks to the team at Code Comments for their support. Data lakes are notoriously complex. For data engineers who battle to build and scale high quality data workflows on the data lake, Starburst is an end-to-end data lakehouse platform built on Trino, the query engine Apache Iceberg was designed for, with complete support for all table formats including Apache Iceberg, Hive, and Delta Lake. Trusted by teams of all sizes, including Comcast and Doordash. Want to see Starburst in action? Go to dataengineeringpodcast.com/starburst and get $500 in credits to try Starburst Galaxy today, the easiest and fastest way to get started using Trino. Your host is Tobias Macey and today I'm interviewing Ronen Korman and Stav Elkayam about pulling back the curtain on your real-time data streams by bringing intuitive observability to Flink streams

Interview

Introduction How did you get involved in the area of data management? Can you describe what Datorios is and the story behind it? Data observability has been gaining adoption for a number of years now, with a large focus on data warehouses. What are some of the unique challenges posed by Flink?

How much of the complexity is due to the nature of streaming data vs. the architectural realities of Flink?

How has the lack of visibility into the flow of data in Flink impacted the ways that teams think about where/when/how to apply it? How have the requirements of generative AI shifted the demand for streaming data systems?

What role does Flink play in the architecture of generative AI systems?

Can you describe how Datorios is implemented?

How has the design and goals of Datorios changed since you first started working on it?

How much of the Datorios architecture and functionality is specific to Flink and how are you thinking about its potential application to other streaming platforms? Can you describe how Datorios is used in a day-to-day workflow for someone building streaming applications on Flink? What are the most interesting, innovative, or unexpected ways that you have seen Datorios used? What are the most interesting, unexpected, or challenging lessons that you have learned while working on Datorios? When is Datorios the wrong choice? What do you have planned for the future of Datorios?

Contact Info

Ronen

LinkedIn

Stav

LinkedIn

Parting Question

From your perspective, what is the biggest gap in the tooling or technology for data management today?

Closing Announcements

Thank you for listening! Don't forget to

Summary

Modern businesses aspire to be data driven, and technologists enjoy working through the challenge of building data systems to support that goal. Data governance is the binding force between these two parts of the organization. Nicola Askham found her way into data governance by accident, and stayed because of the benefit that she was able to provide by serving as a bridge between the technology and business. In this episode she shares the practical steps to implementing a data governance practice in your organization, and the pitfalls to avoid.

Announcements

Hello and welcome to the Data Engineering Podcast, the show about modern data management Data lakes are notoriously complex. For data engineers who battle to build and scale high quality data workflows on the data lake, Starburst is an end-to-end data lakehouse platform built on Trino, the query engine Apache Iceberg was designed for, with complete support for all table formats including Apache Iceberg, Hive, and Delta Lake. Trusted by teams of all sizes, including Comcast and Doordash. Want to see Starburst in action? Go to dataengineeringpodcast.com/starburst and get $500 in credits to try Starburst Galaxy today, the easiest and fastest way to get started using Trino. This episode is supported by Code Comments, an original podcast from Red Hat. As someone who listens to the Data Engineering Podcast, you know that the road from tool selection to production readiness is anything but smooth or straight. In Code Comments, host Jamie Parker, Red Hatter and experienced engineer, shares the journey of technologists from across the industry and their hard-won lessons in implementing new technologies. I listened to the recent episode "Transforming Your Database" and appreciated the valuable advice on how to approach the selection and integration of new databases in applications and the impact on team dynamics. There are 3 seasons of great episodes and new ones landing everywhere you listen to podcasts. Search for "Code Commentst" in your podcast player or go to dataengineeringpodcast.com/codecomments today to subscribe. My thanks to the team at Code Comments for their support. Your host is Tobias Macey and today I'm interviewing Nicola Askham about the practical steps of building out a data governance practice in your organization

Interview

Introduction How did you get involved in the area of data management? Can you start by giving an overview of the scope and boundaries of data governance in an organization?

At what point does a lack of an explicit governance policy become a liability?

What are some of the misconceptions that you encounter about data governance? What impact has the evolution of data technologies had on the implementation of governance practices? (e.g. number/scale of systems, types of data, AI) Data governance can often become an exercise in boiling the ocean. What are the concrete first steps that will increase the success rate of a governance practice?

Once a data governance project is underway, what are some of the common roadblocks that might derail progress?

What are the net benefits to the data team and the organization when a data governance practice is established, active, and healthy? What are the most interesting, innovative, or unexpected ways that you have seen data governance applied? What are the most interesting, unexpected, or challenging lessons that you have learned while working on data governance/training/coaching? What are some of the pitfalls in data governance? What are some of the future trends in data governance that you are excited by?

Are there any trends that concern you?

Contact Info

Website LinkedIn

Parting Question

From your perspective, what is the biggest gap in the tooling or technology for data management today?

Closing Announcements

Thank you for listening! Don't forget to check out our other shows. Podcast.init covers the Python language, its community, and the innovative ways it is

Summary

Any software system that survives long enough will require some form of migration or evolution. When that system is responsible for the data layer the process becomes more challenging. Sriram Panyam has been involved in several projects that required migration of large volumes of data in high traffic environments. In this episode he shares some of the valuable lessons that he learned about how to make those projects successful.

Announcements

Hello and welcome to the Data Engineering Podcast, the show about modern data management Data lakes are notoriously complex. For data engineers who battle to build and scale high quality data workflows on the data lake, Starburst is an end-to-end data lakehouse platform built on Trino, the query engine Apache Iceberg was designed for, with complete support for all table formats including Apache Iceberg, Hive, and Delta Lake. Trusted by teams of all sizes, including Comcast and Doordash. Want to see Starburst in action? Go to dataengineeringpodcast.com/starburst and get $500 in credits to try Starburst Galaxy today, the easiest and fastest way to get started using Trino. This episode is supported by Code Comments, an original podcast from Red Hat. As someone who listens to the Data Engineering Podcast, you know that the road from tool selection to production readiness is anything but smooth or straight. In Code Comments, host Jamie Parker, Red Hatter and experienced engineer, shares the journey of technologists from across the industry and their hard-won lessons in implementing new technologies. I listened to the recent episode "Transforming Your Database" and appreciated the valuable advice on how to approach the selection and integration of new databases in applications and the impact on team dynamics. There are 3 seasons of great episodes and new ones landing everywhere you listen to podcasts. Search for "Code Commentst" in your podcast player or go to dataengineeringpodcast.com/codecomments today to subscribe. My thanks to the team at Code Comments for their support. Your host is Tobias Macey and today I'm interviewing Sriram Panyam about his experiences conducting large scale data migrations and the useful strategies that he learned in the process

Interview

Introduction How did you get involved in the area of data management? Can you start by sharing some of your experiences with data migration projects?

As you have gone through successive migration projects, how has that influenced the ways that you think about architecting data systems?

How would you categorize the different types and motivations of migrations?

How does the motivation for a migration influence the ways that you plan for and execute that work?

Can you talk us through one or two specific projects that you have taken part in? Part 1: The Triggers

Section 1: Technical Limitations triggering Data Migration

Scaling bottlenecks: Performance issues with databases, storage, or network infrastructure Legacy compatibility: Difficulties integrating with modern tools and cloud platforms System upgrades: The need to migrate data during major software changes (e.g., SQL Server version upgrade)

Section 2: Types of Migrations for Infrastructure Focus

Storage migration: Moving data between systems (HDD to SSD, SAN to NAS, etc.) Data center migration: Physical relocation or consolidation of data centers Virtualization migration: Moving from physical servers to virtual machines (or vice versa)

Section 3: Technical Decisions Driving Data Migrations

End-of-life support: Forced migration when older software or hardware is sunsetted Security and compliance: Adopting new platforms with better security postures Cost Optimization: Potential savings of cloud vs. on-premise data centers

Part 2: Challenges (and Anxieties)

Section 1: Technical Challenges

Data transformation challenges: Schema changes, complex data mappings Network bandwidth and latency: Transferring large datasets efficiently Performance tes

Summary

The purpose of business intelligence systems is to allow anyone in the business to access and decode data to help them make informed decisions. Unfortunately this often turns into an exercise in frustration for everyone involved due to complex workflows and hard-to-understand dashboards. The team at Zenlytic have leaned on the promise of large language models to build an AI agent that lets you converse with your data. In this episode they share their journey through the fast-moving landscape of generative AI and unpack the difference between an AI chatbot and an AI agent.

Announcements

Hello and welcome to the Data Engineering Podcast, the show about modern data management This episode is supported by Code Comments, an original podcast from Red Hat. As someone who listens to the Data Engineering Podcast, you know that the road from tool selection to production readiness is anything but smooth or straight. In Code Comments, host Jamie Parker, Red Hatter and experienced engineer, shares the journey of technologists from across the industry and their hard-won lessons in implementing new technologies. I listened to the recent episode "Transforming Your Database" and appreciated the valuable advice on how to approach the selection and integration of new databases in applications and the impact on team dynamics. There are 3 seasons of great episodes and new ones landing everywhere you listen to podcasts. Search for "Code Commentst" in your podcast player or go to dataengineeringpodcast.com/codecomments today to subscribe. My thanks to the team at Code Comments for their support. Data lakes are notoriously complex. For data engineers who battle to build and scale high quality data workflows on the data lake, Starburst is an end-to-end data lakehouse platform built on Trino, the query engine Apache Iceberg was designed for, with complete support for all table formats including Apache Iceberg, Hive, and Delta Lake. Trusted by teams of all sizes, including Comcast and Doordash. Want to see Starburst in action? Go to dataengineeringpodcast.com/starburst and get $500 in credits to try Starburst Galaxy today, the easiest and fastest way to get started using Trino. Your host is Tobias Macey and today I'm interviewing Ryan Janssen and Paul Blankley about their experiences building AI powered agents for interacting with your data

Interview

Introduction How did you get involved in data? In AI? Can you describe what Zenlytic is and the role that AI is playing in your platform? What have been the key stages in your AI journey?

What are some of the dead ends that you ran into along the path to where you are today? What are some of the persistent challenges that you are facing?

So tell us more about data agents. Firstly, what are data agents and why do you think they're important? How are data agents different from chatbots? Are data agents harder to build? How do you make them work in production? What other technical architectures have you had to develop to support the use of AI in Zenlytic? How have you approached the work of customer education as you introduce this functionality? What are some of the most interesting or erroneous misconceptions that you have heard about what the AI can and can't do? How have you balanced accuracy/trustworthiness with user experience and flexibility in the conversational AI, given the potential for these models to create erroneous responses? What are the most interesting, innovative, or unexpected ways that you have seen your AI agent used? What are the most interesting, unexpected, or challenging lessons that you have learned while working on building an AI agent for business intelligence? When is an AI agent the wrong choice? What do you have planned for the future of AI in the Zenlytic product?

Contact Info

Ryan

LinkedIn

Paul

LinkedIn

Parting Question

From your perspective, what is the biggest gap in the tooling or technology for data management today?

Closing Announce

Summary

Building a data platform is a substrantial engineering endeavor. Once it is running, the next challenge is figuring out how to address release management for all of the different component parts. The services and systems need to be kept up to date, but so does the code that controls their behavior. In this episode your host Tobias Macey reflects on his current challenges in this area and some of the factors that contribute to the complexity of the problem.

Announcements

Hello and welcome to the Data Engineering Podcast, the show about modern data management This episode is supported by Code Comments, an original podcast from Red Hat. As someone who listens to the Data Engineering Podcast, you know that the road from tool selection to production readiness is anything but smooth or straight. In Code Comments, host Jamie Parker, Red Hatter and experienced engineer, shares the journey of technologists from across the industry and their hard-won lessons in implementing new technologies. I listened to the recent episode "Transforming Your Database" and appreciated the valuable advice on how to approach the selection and integration of new databases in applications and the impact on team dynamics. There are 3 seasons of great episodes and new ones landing everywhere you listen to podcasts. Search for "Code Commentst" in your podcast player or go to dataengineeringpodcast.com/codecomments today to subscribe. My thanks to the team at Code Comments for their support. Data lakes are notoriously complex. For data engineers who battle to build and scale high quality data workflows on the data lake, Starburst is an end-to-end data lakehouse platform built on Trino, the query engine Apache Iceberg was designed for, with complete support for all table formats including Apache Iceberg, Hive, and Delta Lake. Trusted by teams of all sizes, including Comcast and Doordash. Want to see Starburst in action? Go to dataengineeringpodcast.com/starburst and get $500 in credits to try Starburst Galaxy today, the easiest and fastest way to get started using Trino. Your host is Tobias Macey and today I want to talk about my experiences managing the QA and release management process of my data platform

Interview

Introduction As a team, our overall goal is to ensure that the production environment for our data platform is highly stable and reliable. This is the foundational element of establishing and maintaining trust with the consumers of our data. In order to support this effort, we need to ensure that only changes that have been tested and verified are promoted to production. Our current challenge is one that plagues all data teams. We want to have an environment that mirrors our production environment that is available for testing, but it’s not feasible to maintain a complete duplicate of all of the production data. Compounding that challenge is the fact that each of the components of our data platform interact with data in slightly different ways and need different processes for ensuring that changes are being promoted safely.

Contact Info

LinkedIn Website

Closing Announcements

Thank you for listening! Don't forget to check out our other shows. Podcast.init covers the Python language, its community, and the innovative ways it is being used. The Machine Learning Podcast helps you go from idea to production with machine learning. Visit the site to subscribe to the show, sign up for the mailing list, and read the show notes. If you've learned something or tried out a project from the show then tell us about it! Email [email protected] with your story.

Links

Data Platforms and Leaky Abstractions Episode Building A Data Platform From Scratch Airbyte

Podcast Episode

Trino dbt Starburst Galaxy Superset Dagster LakeFS

Podcast Episode

Nessie

Podcast Episode

Iceberg Snowflake LocalStack DSL == Domain Specific Language

The intro and outro music is from The Hug by The Freak Fandango Orchestra / CC BY-S

Summary Artificial intelligence has dominated the headlines for several months due to the successes of large language models. This has prompted numerous debates about the possibility of, and timeline for, artificial general intelligence (AGI). Peter Voss has dedicated decades of his life to the pursuit of truly intelligent software through the approach of cognitive AI. In this episode he explains his approach to building AI in a more human-like fashion and the emphasis on learning rather than statistical prediction. Announcements Hello and welcome to the Data Engineering Podcast, the show about modern data managementDagster offers a new approach to building and running data platforms and data pipelines. It is an open-source, cloud-native orchestrator for the whole development lifecycle, with integrated lineage and observability, a declarative programming model, and best-in-class testability. Your team can get up and running in minutes thanks to Dagster Cloud, an enterprise-class hosted solution that offers serverless and hybrid deployments, enhanced security, and on-demand ephemeral test deployments. Go to dataengineeringpodcast.com/dagster today to get started. Your first 30 days are free!Data lakes are notoriously complex. For data engineers who battle to build and scale high quality data workflows on the data lake, Starburst powers petabyte-scale SQL analytics fast, at a fraction of the cost of traditional methods, so that you can meet all your data needs ranging from AI to data applications to complete analytics. Trusted by teams of all sizes, including Comcast and Doordash, Starburst is a data lake analytics platform that delivers the adaptability and flexibility a lakehouse ecosystem promises. And Starburst does all of this on an open architecture with first-class support for Apache Iceberg, Delta Lake and Hudi, so you always maintain ownership of your data. Want to see Starburst in action? Go to dataengineeringpodcast.com/starburst and get $500 in credits to try Starburst Galaxy today, the easiest and fastest way to get started using Trino.Your host is Tobias Macey and today I'm interviewing Peter Voss about what is involved in making your AI applications more "human"Interview IntroductionHow did you get involved in machine learning?Can you start by unpacking the idea of "human-like" AI? How does that contrast with the conception of "AGI"?The applications and limitations of GPT/LLM models have been dominating the popular conversation around AI. How do you see that impacting the overrall ecosystem of ML/AI applications and investment?The fundamental/foundational challenge of every AI use case is sourcing appropriate data. What are the strategies that you have found useful to acquire, evaluate, and prepare data at an appropriate scale to build high quality models? What are the opportunities and limitations of causal modeling techniques for generalized AI models?As AI systems gain more sophistication there is a challenge with establishing and maintaining trust. What are the risks involved in deploying more human-level AI systems and monitoring their reliability?What are the practical/architectural methods necessary to build more cognitive AI systems? How would you characterize the ecosystem of tools/frameworks available for creating, evolving, and maintaining these applications?What are the most interesting, innovative, or unexpected ways that you have seen cognitive AI applied?What are the most interesting, unexpected, or challenging lessons that you have learned while working on desiging/developing cognitive AI systems?When is cognitive AI the wrong choice?What do you have planned for the future of cognitive AI applications at Aigo?Contact Info LinkedInWebsiteParting Question From your perspective, what is the biggest barrier to adoption of machine learning today?Closing Announcements Thank you for listening! Don't forget to check out our other shows. Podcast.init covers the Python language, its community, and the innovative ways it is being used. The Machine Learning Podcast helps you go from idea to production with machine learning.Visit the site to subscribe to the show, sign up for the mailing list, and read the show notes.If you've learned something or tried out a project from the show then tell us about it! Email [email protected]) with your story.Links Aigo.aiArtificial General IntelligenceCognitive AIKnowledge GraphCausal ModelingBayesian StatisticsThinking Fast & Slow by Daniel Kahneman (affiliate link)Agent-Based ModelingReinforcement LearningDARPA 3 Waves of AI presentationWhy Don't We Have AGI Yet? whitepaperConcepts Is All You Need WhitepaperHellen KellerStephen HawkingThe intro and outro music is from Hitman's Lovesong feat. Paola Graziano by The Freak Fandango Orchestra/CC BY-SA 3.0

Summary Generative AI promises to accelerate the productivity of human collaborators. Currently the primary way of working with these tools is through a conversational prompt, which is often cumbersome and unwieldy. In order to simplify the integration of AI capabilities into developer workflows Tsavo Knott helped create Pieces, a powerful collection of tools that complements the tools that developers already use. In this episode he explains the data collection and preparation process, the collection of model types and sizes that work together to power the experience, and how to incorporate it into your workflow to act as a second brain.

Announcements Hello and welcome to the Data Engineering Podcast, the show about modern data managementDagster offers a new approach to building and running data platforms and data pipelines. It is an open-source, cloud-native orchestrator for the whole development lifecycle, with integrated lineage and observability, a declarative programming model, and best-in-class testability. Your team can get up and running in minutes thanks to Dagster Cloud, an enterprise-class hosted solution that offers serverless and hybrid deployments, enhanced security, and on-demand ephemeral test deployments. Go to dataengineeringpodcast.com/dagster today to get started. Your first 30 days are free!Data lakes are notoriously complex. For data engineers who battle to build and scale high quality data workflows on the data lake, Starburst powers petabyte-scale SQL analytics fast, at a fraction of the cost of traditional methods, so that you can meet all your data needs ranging from AI to data applications to complete analytics. Trusted by teams of all sizes, including Comcast and Doordash, Starburst is a data lake analytics platform that delivers the adaptability and flexibility a lakehouse ecosystem promises. And Starburst does all of this on an open architecture with first-class support for Apache Iceberg, Delta Lake and Hudi, so you always maintain ownership of your data. Want to see Starburst in action? Go to dataengineeringpodcast.com/starburst and get $500 in credits to try Starburst Galaxy today, the easiest and fastest way to get started using Trino.Your host is Tobias Macey and today I'm interviewing Tsavo Knott about Pieces, a personal AI toolkit to improve the efficiency of developersInterview IntroductionHow did you get involved in machine learning?Can you describe what Pieces is and the story behind it?The past few months have seen an endless series of personalized AI tools launched. What are the features and focus of Pieces that might encourage someone to use it over the alternatives?model selectionsarchitecture of Pieces applicationlocal vs. hybrid vs. online modelsmodel update/delivery processdata preparation/serving for models in context of Pieces appapplication of AI to developer workflowstypes of workflows that people are building with piecesWhat are the most interesting, innovative, or unexpected ways that you have seen Pieces used?What are the most interesting, unexpected, or challenging lessons that you have learned while working on Pieces?When is Pieces the wrong choice?What do you have planned for the future of Pieces?Contact Info LinkedInParting Question From your perspective, what is the biggest barrier to adoption of machine learning today?Closing Announcements Thank you for listening! Don't forget to check out our other shows. Podcast.init covers the Python language, its community, and the innovative ways it is being used. The Machine Learning Podcast helps you go from idea to production with machine learning.Visit the site to subscribe to the show, sign up for the mailing list, and read the show notes.If you've learned something or tried out a project from the show then tell us about it! Email [email protected]) with your story.Links PiecesNPU == Neural Processing UnitTensor ChipLoRA == Low Rank AdaptationGenerative Adversarial NetworksMistralEmacsVimNeoVimDartFlutte

Summary

Generative AI has rapidly transformed everything in the technology sector. When Andrew Lee started work on Shortwave he was focused on making email more productive. When AI started gaining adoption he realized that he had even more potential for a transformative experience. In this episode he shares the technical challenges that he and his team have overcome in integrating AI into their product, as well as the benefits and features that it provides to their customers.

Announcements

Hello and welcome to the Data Engineering Podcast, the show about modern data management Dagster offers a new approach to building and running data platforms and data pipelines. It is an open-source, cloud-native orchestrator for the whole development lifecycle, with integrated lineage and observability, a declarative programming model, and best-in-class testability. Your team can get up and running in minutes thanks to Dagster Cloud, an enterprise-class hosted solution that offers serverless and hybrid deployments, enhanced security, and on-demand ephemeral test deployments. Go to dataengineeringpodcast.com/dagster today to get started. Your first 30 days are free! Data lakes are notoriously complex. For data engineers who battle to build and scale high quality data workflows on the data lake, Starburst powers petabyte-scale SQL analytics fast, at a fraction of the cost of traditional methods, so that you can meet all your data needs ranging from AI to data applications to complete analytics. Trusted by teams of all sizes, including Comcast and Doordash, Starburst is a data lake analytics platform that delivers the adaptability and flexibility a lakehouse ecosystem promises. And Starburst does all of this on an open architecture with first-class support for Apache Iceberg, Delta Lake and Hudi, so you always maintain ownership of your data. Want to see Starburst in action? Go to dataengineeringpodcast.com/starburst and get $500 in credits to try Starburst Galaxy today, the easiest and fastest way to get started using Trino. Your host is Tobias Macey and today I'm interviewing Andrew Lee about his work on Shortwave, an AI powered email client

Interview

Introduction How did you get involved in the area of data management? Can you describe what Shortwave is and the story behind it?

What is the core problem that you are addressing with Shortwave?

Email has been a central part of communication and business productivity for decades now. What are the overall themes that continue to be problematic? What are the strengths that email maintains as a protocol and ecosystem? From a product perspective, what are the data challenges that are posed by email? Can you describe how you have architected the Shortwave platform?

How have the design and goals of the product changed since you started it? What are the ways that the advent and evolution of language models have influenced your product roadmap?

How do you manage the personalization of the AI functionality in your system for each user/team? For users and teams who are using Shortwave, how does it change their workflow and communication patterns? Can you describe how I would use Shortwave for managing the workflow of evaluating, planning, and promoting my podcast episodes? What are the most interesting, innovative, or unexpected ways that you have seen Shortwave used? What are the most interesting, unexpected, or challenging lessons that you have learned while working on Shortwave? When is Shortwave the wrong choice? What do you have planned for the future of Shortwave?

Contact Info

LinkedIn Blog

Parting Question

From your perspective, what is the biggest gap in the tooling or technology for data management today?

Closing Announcements

Thank you for listening! Don't forget to check out our other shows. Podcast.init covers the Python language, its community, and the innovative ways it is being used. The Machine Learning Podcast helps you go from idea to production with mach

Summary

Databases come in a variety of formats for different use cases. The default association with the term "database" is relational engines, but non-relational engines are also used quite widely. In this episode Oren Eini, CEO and creator of RavenDB, explores the nuances of relational vs. non-relational engines, and the strategies for designing a non-relational database.

Announcements

Hello and welcome to the Data Engineering Podcast, the show about modern data management This episode is brought to you by Datafold – a testing automation platform for data engineers that prevents data quality issues from entering every part of your data workflow, from migration to dbt deployment. Datafold has recently launched data replication testing, providing ongoing validation for source-to-target replication. Leverage Datafold's fast cross-database data diffing and Monitoring to test your replication pipelines automatically and continuously. Validate consistency between source and target at any scale, and receive alerts about any discrepancies. Learn more about Datafold by visiting dataengineeringpodcast.com/datafold. Dagster offers a new approach to building and running data platforms and data pipelines. It is an open-source, cloud-native orchestrator for the whole development lifecycle, with integrated lineage and observability, a declarative programming model, and best-in-class testability. Your team can get up and running in minutes thanks to Dagster Cloud, an enterprise-class hosted solution that offers serverless and hybrid deployments, enhanced security, and on-demand ephemeral test deployments. Go to dataengineeringpodcast.com/dagster today to get started. Your first 30 days are free! Data lakes are notoriously complex. For data engineers who battle to build and scale high quality data workflows on the data lake, Starburst powers petabyte-scale SQL analytics fast, at a fraction of the cost of traditional methods, so that you can meet all your data needs ranging from AI to data applications to complete analytics. Trusted by teams of all sizes, including Comcast and Doordash, Starburst is a data lake analytics platform that delivers the adaptability and flexibility a lakehouse ecosystem promises. And Starburst does all of this on an open architecture with first-class support for Apache Iceberg, Delta Lake and Hudi, so you always maintain ownership of your data. Want to see Starburst in action? Go to dataengineeringpodcast.com/starburst and get $500 in credits to try Starburst Galaxy today, the easiest and fastest way to get started using Trino. Your host is Tobias Macey and today I'm interviewing Oren Eini about the work of designing and building a NoSQL database engine

Interview

Introduction How did you get involved in the area of data management? Can you describe what constitutes a NoSQL database?

How have the requirements and applications of NoSQL engines changed since they first became popular ~15 years ago?

What are the factors that convince teams to use a NoSQL vs. SQL database?

NoSQL is a generalized term that encompasses a number of different data models. How does the underlying representation (e.g. document, K/V, graph) change that calculus?

How have the evolution in data formats (e.g. N-dimensional vectors, point clouds, etc.) changed the landscape for NoSQL engines? When designing and building a database, what are the initial set of questions that need to be answered?

How many "core capabilities" can you reasonably design around before they conflict with each other?

How have you approached the evolution of RavenDB as you add new capabilities and mature the project?

What are some of the early decisions that had to be unwound to enable new capabilities?

If you were to start from scratch today, what database would you build? What are the most interesting, innovative, or unexpected ways that you have seen RavenDB/NoSQL databases used? What are the most interesting, unexpected, or challenging lessons t

Summary

Maintaining a single source of truth for your data is the biggest challenge in data engineering. Different roles and tasks in the business need their own ways to access and analyze the data in the organization. In order to enable this use case, while maintaining a single point of access, the semantic layer has evolved as a technological solution to the problem. In this episode Artyom Keydunov, creator of Cube, discusses the evolution and applications of the semantic layer as a component of your data platform, and how Cube provides speed and cost optimization for your data consumers.

Announcements

Hello and welcome to the Data Engineering Podcast, the show about modern data management This episode is brought to you by Datafold – a testing automation platform for data engineers that prevents data quality issues from entering every part of your data workflow, from migration to dbt deployment. Datafold has recently launched data replication testing, providing ongoing validation for source-to-target replication. Leverage Datafold's fast cross-database data diffing and Monitoring to test your replication pipelines automatically and continuously. Validate consistency between source and target at any scale, and receive alerts about any discrepancies. Learn more about Datafold by visiting dataengineeringpodcast.com/datafold. Dagster offers a new approach to building and running data platforms and data pipelines. It is an open-source, cloud-native orchestrator for the whole development lifecycle, with integrated lineage and observability, a declarative programming model, and best-in-class testability. Your team can get up and running in minutes thanks to Dagster Cloud, an enterprise-class hosted solution that offers serverless and hybrid deployments, enhanced security, and on-demand ephemeral test deployments. Go to dataengineeringpodcast.com/dagster today to get started. Your first 30 days are free! Data lakes are notoriously complex. For data engineers who battle to build and scale high quality data workflows on the data lake, Starburst powers petabyte-scale SQL analytics fast, at a fraction of the cost of traditional methods, so that you can meet all your data needs ranging from AI to data applications to complete analytics. Trusted by teams of all sizes, including Comcast and Doordash, Starburst is a data lake analytics platform that delivers the adaptability and flexibility a lakehouse ecosystem promises. And Starburst does all of this on an open architecture with first-class support for Apache Iceberg, Delta Lake and Hudi, so you always maintain ownership of your data. Want to see Starburst in action? Go to dataengineeringpodcast.com/starburst and get $500 in credits to try Starburst Galaxy today, the easiest and fastest way to get started using Trino. Your host is Tobias Macey and today I'm interviewing Artyom Keydunov about the role of the semantic layer in your data platform

Interview

Introduction How did you get involved in the area of data management? Can you start by outlining the technical elements of what it means to have a "semantic layer"? In the past couple of years there was a rapid hype cycle around the "metrics layer" and "headless BI", which has largely faded. Can you give your assessment of the current state of the industry around the adoption/implementation of these concepts? What are the benefits of having a discrete service that offers the business metrics/semantic mappings as opposed to implementing those concepts as part of a more general system? (e.g. dbt, BI, warehouse marts, etc.)

At what point does it become necessary/beneficial for a team to adopt such a service? What are the challenges involved in retrofitting a semantic layer into a production data system?

evolution of requirements/usage patterns technical complexities/performance and cost optimization What are the most interesting, innovative, or unexpected ways that you have seen Cube used? What are the most interesting, unexpec

Summary

Working with data is a complicated process, with numerous chances for something to go wrong. Identifying and accounting for those errors is a critical piece of building trust in the organization that your data is accurate and up to date. While there are numerous products available to provide that visibility, they all have different technologies and workflows that they focus on. To bring observability to dbt projects the team at Elementary embedded themselves into the workflow. In this episode Maayan Salom explores the approach that she has taken to bring observability, enhanced testing capabilities, and anomaly detection into every step of the dbt developer experience.

Announcements

Hello and welcome to the Data Engineering Podcast, the show about modern data management Data lakes are notoriously complex. For data engineers who battle to build and scale high quality data workflows on the data lake, Starburst powers petabyte-scale SQL analytics fast, at a fraction of the cost of traditional methods, so that you can meet all your data needs ranging from AI to data applications to complete analytics. Trusted by teams of all sizes, including Comcast and Doordash, Starburst is a data lake analytics platform that delivers the adaptability and flexibility a lakehouse ecosystem promises. And Starburst does all of this on an open architecture with first-class support for Apache Iceberg, Delta Lake and Hudi, so you always maintain ownership of your data. Want to see Starburst in action? Go to dataengineeringpodcast.com/starburst and get $500 in credits to try Starburst Galaxy today, the easiest and fastest way to get started using Trino. Dagster offers a new approach to building and running data platforms and data pipelines. It is an open-source, cloud-native orchestrator for the whole development lifecycle, with integrated lineage and observability, a declarative programming model, and best-in-class testability. Your team can get up and running in minutes thanks to Dagster Cloud, an enterprise-class hosted solution that offers serverless and hybrid deployments, enhanced security, and on-demand ephemeral test deployments. Go to dataengineeringpodcast.com/dagster today to get started. Your first 30 days are free! This episode is brought to you by Datafold – a testing automation platform for data engineers that prevents data quality issues from entering every part of your data workflow, from migration to dbt deployment. Datafold has recently launched data replication testing, providing ongoing validation for source-to-target replication. Leverage Datafold's fast cross-database data diffing and Monitoring to test your replication pipelines automatically and continuously. Validate consistency between source and target at any scale, and receive alerts about any discrepancies. Learn more about Datafold by visiting dataengineeringpodcast.com/datafold. Your host is Tobias Macey and today I'm interviewing Maayan Salom about how to incorporate observability into a dbt-oriented workflow and how Elementary can help

Interview

Introduction How did you get involved in the area of data management? Can you start by outlining what elements of observability are most relevant for dbt projects? What are some of the common ad-hoc/DIY methods that teams develop to acquire those insights?

What are the challenges/shortcomings associated with those approaches?

Over the past ~3 years there were numerous data observability systems/products created. What are some of the ways that the specifics of dbt workflows are not covered by those generalized tools?

What are the insights that can be more easily generated by embedding into the dbt toolchain and development cycle?

Can you describe what Elementary is and how it is designed to enhance the development and maintenance work in dbt projects? How is Elementary designed/implemented?

How have the scope and goals of the project changed since you started working on it? What are the engineering ch

Summary

A core differentiator of Dagster in the ecosystem of data orchestration is their focus on software defined assets as a means of building declarative workflows. With their launch of Dagster+ as the redesigned commercial companion to the open source project they are investing in that capability with a suite of new features. In this episode Pete Hunt, CEO of Dagster labs, outlines these new capabilities, how they reduce the burden on data teams, and the increased collaboration that they enable across teams and business units.

Announcements

Hello and welcome to the Data Engineering Podcast, the show about modern data management Dagster offers a new approach to building and running data platforms and data pipelines. It is an open-source, cloud-native orchestrator for the whole development lifecycle, with integrated lineage and observability, a declarative programming model, and best-in-class testability. Your team can get up and running in minutes thanks to Dagster Cloud, an enterprise-class hosted solution that offers serverless and hybrid deployments, enhanced security, and on-demand ephemeral test deployments. Go to dataengineeringpodcast.com/dagster today to get started. Your first 30 days are free! Data lakes are notoriously complex. For data engineers who battle to build and scale high quality data workflows on the data lake, Starburst powers petabyte-scale SQL analytics fast, at a fraction of the cost of traditional methods, so that you can meet all your data needs ranging from AI to data applications to complete analytics. Trusted by teams of all sizes, including Comcast and Doordash, Starburst is a data lake analytics platform that delivers the adaptability and flexibility a lakehouse ecosystem promises. And Starburst does all of this on an open architecture with first-class support for Apache Iceberg, Delta Lake and Hudi, so you always maintain ownership of your data. Want to see Starburst in action? Go to dataengineeringpodcast.com/starburst and get $500 in credits to try Starburst Galaxy today, the easiest and fastest way to get started using Trino. Your host is Tobias Macey and today I'm interviewing Pete Hunt about how the launch of Dagster+ will level up your data platform and orchestrate across language platforms

Interview

Introduction How did you get involved in the area of data management? Can you describe what the focus of Dagster+ is and the story behind it?

What problems are you trying to solve with Dagster+? What are the notable enhancements beyond the Dagster Core project that this updated platform provides? How is it different from the current Dagster Cloud product?

In the launch announcement you tease new capabilities that would be great to explore in turns:

Make data a team sport, enabling data teams across the organization Deliver reliable, high quality data the organization can trust Observe and manage data platform costs Master the heterogeneous collection of technologies—both traditional and Modern Data Stack

What are the business/product goals that you are focused on improving with the launch of Dagster+ What are the most interesting, innovative, or unexpected ways that you have seen Dagster used? What are the most interesting, unexpected, or challenging lessons that you have learned while working on the design and launch of Dagster+? When is Dagster+ the wrong choice? What do you have planned for the future of Dagster/Dagster Cloud/Dagster+?

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Parting Question

From your perspective, what is the biggest gap in the tooling or technology for data management today?

Closing Announcements

Thank you for listening! Don't forget to check out our other shows. Podcast.init covers the Python language, its community, and the innovative ways it is being used. The Machine Learning Podcast helps you go from idea to production with machine learning. Visit the site to subscribe to the show, sign up for the mailing list, and read the show notes. If y

Summary

A significant portion of data workflows involve storing and processing information in database engines. Validating that the information is stored and processed correctly can be complex and time-consuming, especially when the source and destination speak different dialects of SQL. In this episode Gleb Mezhanskiy, founder and CEO of Datafold, discusses the different error conditions and solutions that you need to know about to ensure the accuracy of your data.

Announcements

Hello and welcome to the Data Engineering Podcast, the show about modern data management Dagster offers a new approach to building and running data platforms and data pipelines. It is an open-source, cloud-native orchestrator for the whole development lifecycle, with integrated lineage and observability, a declarative programming model, and best-in-class testability. Your team can get up and running in minutes thanks to Dagster Cloud, an enterprise-class hosted solution that offers serverless and hybrid deployments, enhanced security, and on-demand ephemeral test deployments. Go to dataengineeringpodcast.com/dagster today to get started. Your first 30 days are free! Data lakes are notoriously complex. For data engineers who battle to build and scale high quality data workflows on the data lake, Starburst powers petabyte-scale SQL analytics fast, at a fraction of the cost of traditional methods, so that you can meet all your data needs ranging from AI to data applications to complete analytics. Trusted by teams of all sizes, including Comcast and Doordash, Starburst is a data lake analytics platform that delivers the adaptability and flexibility a lakehouse ecosystem promises. And Starburst does all of this on an open architecture with first-class support for Apache Iceberg, Delta Lake and Hudi, so you always maintain ownership of your data. Want to see Starburst in action? Go to dataengineeringpodcast.com/starburst and get $500 in credits to try Starburst Galaxy today, the easiest and fastest way to get started using Trino. Join us at the top event for the global data community, Data Council Austin. From March 26-28th 2024, we'll play host to hundreds of attendees, 100 top speakers and dozens of startups that are advancing data science, engineering and AI. Data Council attendees are amazing founders, data scientists, lead engineers, CTOs, heads of data, investors and community organizers who are all working together to build the future of data and sharing their insights and learnings through deeply technical talks. As a listener to the Data Engineering Podcast you can get a special discount off regular priced and late bird tickets by using the promo code dataengpod20. Don't miss out on our only event this year! Visit dataengineeringpodcast.com/data-council and use code dataengpod20 to register today! Your host is Tobias Macey and today I'm welcoming back Gleb Mezhanskiy to talk about how to reconcile data in database environments

Interview

Introduction How did you get involved in the area of data management? Can you start by outlining some of the situations where reconciling data between databases is needed? What are examples of the error conditions that you are likely to run into when duplicating information between database engines?

When these errors do occur, what are some of the problems that they can cause?

When teams are replicating data between database engines, what are some of the common patterns for managing those flows?

How does that change between continual and one-time replication?

What are some of the steps involved in verifying the integrity of data replication between database engines? If the source or destination isn't a traditional database engine (e.g. data lakehouse) how does that change the work involved in verifying the success of the replication? What are the challenges of validating and reconciling data?

Sheer scale and cost of pulling data out, have to do in-place Performance. Pushing databases to the limit,

Summary

Data lakehouse architectures are gaining popularity due to the flexibility and cost effectiveness that they offer. The link that bridges the gap between data lake and warehouse capabilities is the catalog. The primary purpose of the catalog is to inform the query engine of what data exists and where, but the Nessie project aims to go beyond that simple utility. In this episode Alex Merced explains how the branching and merging functionality in Nessie allows you to use the same versioning semantics for your data lakehouse that you are used to from Git.

Announcements

Hello and welcome to the Data Engineering Podcast, the show about modern data management Dagster offers a new approach to building and running data platforms and data pipelines. It is an open-source, cloud-native orchestrator for the whole development lifecycle, with integrated lineage and observability, a declarative programming model, and best-in-class testability. Your team can get up and running in minutes thanks to Dagster Cloud, an enterprise-class hosted solution that offers serverless and hybrid deployments, enhanced security, and on-demand ephemeral test deployments. Go to dataengineeringpodcast.com/dagster today to get started. Your first 30 days are free! Data lakes are notoriously complex. For data engineers who battle to build and scale high quality data workflows on the data lake, Starburst powers petabyte-scale SQL analytics fast, at a fraction of the cost of traditional methods, so that you can meet all your data needs ranging from AI to data applications to complete analytics. Trusted by teams of all sizes, including Comcast and Doordash, Starburst is a data lake analytics platform that delivers the adaptability and flexibility a lakehouse ecosystem promises. And Starburst does all of this on an open architecture with first-class support for Apache Iceberg, Delta Lake and Hudi, so you always maintain ownership of your data. Want to see Starburst in action? Go to dataengineeringpodcast.com/starburst and get $500 in credits to try Starburst Galaxy today, the easiest and fastest way to get started using Trino. Join us at the top event for the global data community, Data Council Austin. From March 26-28th 2024, we'll play host to hundreds of attendees, 100 top speakers and dozens of startups that are advancing data science, engineering and AI. Data Council attendees are amazing founders, data scientists, lead engineers, CTOs, heads of data, investors and community organizers who are all working together to build the future of data and sharing their insights and learnings through deeply technical talks. As a listener to the Data Engineering Podcast you can get a special discount off regular priced and late bird tickets by using the promo code dataengpod20. Don't miss out on our only event this year! Visit dataengineeringpodcast.com/data-council and use code dataengpod20 to register today! Your host is Tobias Macey and today I'm interviewing Alex Merced, developer advocate at Dremio and co-author of the upcoming book from O'reilly, "Apache Iceberg, The definitive Guide", about Nessie, a git-like versioned catalog for data lakes using Apache Iceberg

Interview

Introduction How did you get involved in the area of data management? Can you describe what Nessie is and the story behind it? What are the core problems/complexities that Nessie is designed to solve? The closest analogue to Nessie that I've seen in the ecosystem is LakeFS. What are the features that would lead someone to choose one or the other for a given use case? Why would someone choose Nessie over native table-level branching in the Apache Iceberg spec? How do the versioning capabilities compare to/augment the data versioning in Iceberg? What are some of the sources of, and challenges in resolving, merge conflicts between table branches? Can you describe the architecture of Nessie? How have the design and goals of the project changed since it was first created? What is involved