181: OLAP Engines and the Next Generation of Business Intelligence with Mike Driscoll of Rill Data
Mar 13, 2024
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Mike Driscoll, Co-founder of Rill Data, discusses the evolution of Druid, architectural decisions, user and developer experiences, BI tools, data architecture, AI's impact on BI. He also shares humorous dreams outside of data.
Data technologies have evolved towards object store architectures for BI, ensuring simplicity, speed, and scalability for enhanced user experience.
AI is revolutionizing data wrangling, promoting SQL as a universal language and enabling automated data visualization.
Deep dives
Evolution of Data Technologies
Data technologies have progressed through generations, from desktop and server-based BI tools to cloud BI tools like Looker and Mode Analytics. The current trend is towards object store architectures for BI, where all data resides in data lakes on object stores like S3 and is accessed by various systems.
Enhancing User Experience and Simplifying BI
BI tools are focused on simplicity, speed, and scalability to enhance user experience. Direct interactions, fast query speeds, and co-location of data and compute are key priorities. Moreover, a code-first approach in BI tools ensures developers can efficiently manage and interact with the data.
Impact of AI in the Data Space
AI is revolutionizing data wrangling by reducing the manual effort in tasks like parsing data. It is also propelling SQL to dominance as a universal language for data work and enabling automated data visualization, reducing the effort required to create informative visualizations.
Career Transition and Alternative Dream
If not in data or technology, Michael Driscoll's alternative dream would be to work in Hollywood as a sitcom writer, inspired by his past experience in writing a stand-up comedy show in college. His interest lies in creating humor and writing jokes for late-night TV shows.
What would Mike be doing if he didn’t work in data? (56:27)
Final thoughts and takeaways (57:02)
The Data Stack Show is a weekly podcast powered by RudderStack, the CDP for developers. Each week we’ll talk to data engineers, analysts, and data scientists about their experience around building and maintaining data infrastructure, delivering data and data products, and driving better outcomes across their businesses with data.
RudderStack helps businesses make the most out of their customer data while ensuring data privacy and security. To learn more about RudderStack visit rudderstack.com.
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