The Data Stack Show Newsletter Edition 022
Is it trite to say ‘it’s an exciting time to be in the space’ if it’s true?
👋 Hi all,
Is it trite to say “It’s an exciting time to be in the space” if it’s true? Since we started The Data Stack Show in mid-2020, we’ve heard this over and over from many different folks. It can seem cliche. But the last four years have been exciting. With the pace of innovation today, you could argue it’s always exciting to be in technology. In data specifically, we’ve seen the rise (and fall?) of the modern data stack and the explosion of generative AI among other rapidly moving trends.
The law of accelerating returns sustains the excitement. This principle was a common thread throughout our slate of shows last month. In our show on WebAssemly, Fermyon’s Matt Butcher cites a number of specific advancements that fell into place in 2023 to pave the way for the next era of cloud compute. In our Panel on composable data systems, Pedro Pedreira makes a similar point about the newfound feasibility of composable systems:
“We’re getting to a point where a lot of those components are already available, and already pretty high quality. So people are beginning to rethink their strategies around proprietary monolithic software. They’re starting to think more about composability, and open source and open standards.”
Check out the rest of the lineup to learn about developments in orchestration, democratizing analytics, and semantic layers.
🌯 The January Wrap
Here’s what you missed (if you missed it) on The Data Stack Show last month:
Machine Learning Pipelines Are Still Data Pipelines with Sandy Ryza (Twitter) of Dagster
Why you should listen – To hear Dagster’s lead engineer, Sandy Ryza, articulate Dagster’s vision for the future of orchestration. Sandy gives us a technical breakdown of data orchestration and provides an insightful view on the intersection (and convergence?) of Analytics and ML tooling.
How WebAssembly is Enabling the Third Wave of Cloud Compute with Matt Butcher (Twitter) of Fermyon Technologies
Why you should listen – For a deep dive on Webassembly. Fermyon CEO, Matt Butcher gives four criteria for the wave of cloud compute and says Webassembly checks all the boxes. Then he tells us how it’s already changing the game for cloud-native apps.
Data Analytics Is a Team Sport, Featuring Jay Henderson (Twitter) of Alteryx
Why you should listen – To learn all about Alteryx’s approach to making data analytics a team sport and enabling access to data for every single worker in an organization.
Does Your Data Stack Need a Semantic Layer? Featuring Artyom Keydunov (Twitter) of Cube Dev
Why you should listen – To get up to speed on all things semantics layer. Cube CEO, Artyom Keydunov, tells us why the modern data stack needs a dedicated semantics layer, breaks down the building blocks of the semantics layer, and outlines different semantics layer approaches.
The Parts, Pieces, and Future of Composable Data Systems, Featuring Wes McKinney (Twitter) , Pedro Pedreira, Chris Riccomini (Twitter) , and Ryan Blue (Twitter)
Why you should listen – The guest list speaks for itself. If you’re interested in composable data systems, this is your chance to hear from leading thinkers and builders. You’ll come away with a clear definition of composability, an understanding of the components of a composable system, and a good grasp on the current and future of composable tech.
🎥 The February Preview
Get ready to hear from these brilliant minds this month:
Viren Baraiya – Co-Founder & CTO of Orkes
Rishabh Bhargava – Co-Founder and CEO of Refuel
Peter Chapman – Head of Data / PLG Consultant
Tony Wang – Stanford PhD Student solving data lake for time series
🔗 Saved to Pocket
The Road to Composable Data Systems: Thoughts on the Last 15 Years and the Future – If you want to keep going on composable data systems, this post from Wes is your read. He gives a detailed retrospective and talks about the gaps in current tooling.
What Dagster Believes About Data Platforms – In this post, Sandy expounds on a number of the points he made during the show and emphatically declares that data platforms should be monolithic.
Announcing the Data Quality Toolkit: Guarantee quality data from the source – RudderStack just launched a toolkit to help you o help you drive data quality at the source. It includes features for collaborative event definitions, violation management, real-time schema fixes, and monitoring and alerting. Read the launch blog for details.
🗓 Upcoming Events
Join once and future guests of The Data Stack Show at these upcoming events:
2/14 | Cube.dev | Webinar: Unlock Proactive Intelligence Using Cube + Push.ai
2/15 | Hex | Boost collaboration between product and data teams with Hex on Snowflake
3/26-28 | Data Council | Data Council Austin
Thanks for reading! If it was worth your time, please share the newsletter with your friends, and subscribe if you haven’t yet. Oh, and we’d love to hear from you. Comment below if you have any feedback for us or just want to connect. ✌ See ya next month.
- Brooks & The Data Stack Show Team