Every data architecture diagram out there makes it abundantly clear who's in charge: At the bottom sits the analyst, above that is an API server, and on the very top sits the mighty data warehouse. This pattern is so ingrained we never ever question its necessity, despite its various issues like slow data response time, multi-level scaling issues, and massive cost.

But there is another way: Disconnect of storage and compute enables localization of query processing closer to people, leading to much snappier responses, natural scaling with client-side query processing, and much reduced cost.

In this talk, it will be discussed how modern data engineering paradigms like decomposition of storage, single-node query processing, and lakehouse formats enable a radical departure from the tired three-tier architecture. By inverting the architecture we can put user's needs first. We can rely on commoditised components like object store to enable fast, scalable, and cost-effective solutions.