Leveraging Open Source Technologies for Data Lakehouses with Alex Merced, Senior Tech Evangelist at Dremio

Over The Edge

What makes data lakehouses a game changer in modern data management? In this episode, Bill sits down with Alex Merced, Senior Tech Evangelist at Dremio, to explore the evolution of data lakehouses and their role in bridging the gap between data lakes and data warehouses. Alex breaks down the components of data lakehouses and dives into the rise of Apache Iceberg.
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Key Quotes:

“I love just get really deep into technology, really see what it does. And then scream at the rooftops how cool it is. And basically that was my charter. And [Apache] Iceberg, the more I learned about it, the more I realized this is really interesting.”

“Interoperability and data. Basically, a lot of the things that kept data in silos is now breaking apart.”

"So here we're talking about something that's going to be a standard. And that's when I think of the highest levels of openness matter because if it's something that a whole industry is going to build on, it should be something that the whole industry has to say in its evolution…And that's the beauty of openness that it does create these nice sort of places where we can collaborate and compete together.”

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Timestamps:

(01:32) How Alex got started in his career

(03:54) Breaking down data lakehouses

(07:08) The idea behind an open data lakehouse

(10:10) Alex's involvement with Apache Iceberg

(15:13) Key components of a data lakehouse

(23:41) The growth of Apache Iceberg

(32:07) Dremio's Apache Iceberg crash course

(38:43) Explaining self-service analytics

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Sponsor:

Over the Edge is brought to you by Dell Technologies to unlock the potential of your infrastructure with edge solutions. From hardware and software to data and operations, across your entire multi-cloud environment, we’re here to help you simplify your edge so you can generate more value. Learn more by visiting dell.com/edge for more information or click on the link in the show notes.

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Credits:

Over the Edge is hosted by Bill Pfeifer, and was created by Matt Trifiro and Ian Faison. Executive producers are Matt Trifiro, Ian Faison, Jon Libbey and Kyle Rusca. The show producer is Erin Stenhouse. The audio engineer is Brian Thomas. Additional production support from Elisabeth Plutko.

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Links:

Follow Bill on LinkedIn

Follow Alex on LinkedIn