The Data Stack Show - The PRQL: Should Data Trust Drive the Evolution of Your Data Stack?

Episode Date: December 31, 2021

In this PRQL, Eric and Kostas preview their upcoming show where they discuss the modern data stack with some of the top experts in the industry.

Welcome to the Data Sack Show prequel. I always raise my hands at the beginning of an episode, as Kostas has pointed out. So this is your signal that the show is starting. We just recorded an incredible episode. We talked with people from Databricks, dbt, Fivetran, someone who's building data infrastructure at Hinge, which is a huge consumer mobile app, and then a VC who invests only in data infrastructure. And we asked each of them what their definition of the modern data stack was. And it was fascinating. You definitely need to listen to this episode. Costas, one of the, one of the things that stuck out to me most was the difference

in response between people who are working on data tooling. So the, the SAS vendors basically, and both Paul from Hinge and the VC. And the one thing I want to point out that was so interesting, and please listen to the episode because it's going episode because it's so interesting to hear Paul talk about this. But Paul from Hinge talked what he really didn't talk about tooling much at all. He just talked about trust. And when we asked him about how do you modernize different parts of the data stack, He actually said, you modernize according to your need to deliver trust with data. And I thought that was one of the most wise ways to think about modernizing a data stack. And I loved it, but that was just a small slice of the conversation.

What stuck out to you? Yeah, I think, first of all, I have to say that it was a very interesting conversation. Very, very interesting. It wouldn't be interesting if you didn't say it was very interesting. Exactly. Exactly. I had to do that. That's my trademark. Yes. Yeah, I totally agree with you.

I mean, it was very interesting to see the different perspectives, even among the vendors. And I mean, it makes total sense, right? Because like each one of them, they perceive and they understand the stack from their perspective, right? Like from the small part of the stack that they operate and what they are trying to improve or introduce as part of like a new experience in this part of the stack. So and I think that's probably also like a big reason behind the confusion that people feel around this term, like, it makes sense, because it's very complicated, right? Like at the end, what is a data stack like? It's everything

that you need in order to deliver data that you can trust, right? So it might sound like an oversimplification. It is an oversimplification, but we need that in order to communicate. But underneath is like a whole infrastructure that you need to set up there. And what I would say is that if you think about it, these vendors are still fighting for their market share and making sure that the products that they build

are the best in their class. But when you have the customer, the customer is always one step ahead. When they have solved the problems using the tools of these people, they're thinking about, okay, what I have to do next. What problem remains there? And at the same time, the VC is also doing that. Like, okay, what's the opportunity? Which means, what's the problem? What's the biggest problem, right, that we have to solve? So I think, I mean, when we started thinking about doing this panel, we had this idea of like trying to build all to bring all the stakeholders. And I think that was like, actually a pretty good idea. I don't know how much of a good job we did moderating the panel and trying to communicate the differences of the views that each one of the stakeholders have.

But that's, I think, probably the most valuable lesson from this conversation that I personally took. So yeah, it was great. It was our first one. So we will definitely continue doing this and improve. So... Absolutely. Let's see what we do next. Yeah, we'll see what we do next. So we will definitely continue doing this and improve. So let's see what we do next. Yeah, we'll see what we do next.

Thanks to everyone who joined us on the live stream as well. We live streamed it and we'll do that with the next one as well. And we'll keep you posted on when all of that's happening in 2022. We'll catch you on the next one. you