Orchestrate all the Things

A flexible API is key to database accessibility and developer friendliness today. Apache Cassandra was lacking in that department, and DataStax is trying to address this with the release of a new API layer called Stargate.  A discussion with Ed Anuff, formerly of Apogee and Google Cloud, and currently DataStax Chief Product Officer, on the rationale behind Stargate, its architecture and operation, how it compares to GraphQL, and a roadmap for the future. Article published on ZDNet

Fluree is a hitherto under the radar graph database that uses blockchain to support data lineage and verification. Learn all about Fluree, its origins and milestones, use cases, data integration and integrity, open source, and more Featuring Brian Platz, Fluree co-founder and co-CEO.  Article published on ZDNet

From fit for purpose development to pie in the sky research, this is what AI looks like in 2020. A discussion on all things AI, with authors of the State of AI 2020 Report, Nathan Benaich and Ian Hogarth. Benaich and Hogarth work on the intersection of industry, research, investment and policy, with extensive background and various currently held positions such as venture capital investor and researcher. This gives them a unique vantage point on all things AI. Their report, which is published for the 3rd year in a row, is their way of sharing their insights with the AI ecosystem at large. Article published on ZDNet

Beyond Limits is an industrial and enterprise-grade AI technology company active in energy, utilities, and healthcare, which just announced a milestone Series C funding round of $133 million, led by Group 42 and BP. The company's approach to applications of AI in industrial settings originates from NASA Jet Propulsion Labs. It's a hybrid approach, combining data-driven machine learning, with knowledge-based symbolic AI, plus the elements of spatial and temporal cognition. We discuss business, technology, applications, and the future of AI with CEO and Founder AJ Abdallat Article published on ZDNet

Netdata, the company behind the eponymous open-source, distributed, real-time, performance, and health monitoring solution for systems and applications, has announced it completed a new round of financing of 14,2 million dollars.  We take the opportunity to dive in the Netdata story with CEO and Founder Costas Tsaousis: what they do and why, their open source approach and distributed architecture, and their position in the overall observability ecosystem. Article published on ZDNet

Τhis episode is all about multi-model and graph databases.  A sui generis, multi-model open source database, designed from the ground up to be distributed. ArangoDB keeps up with the times and uses graph, and machine learning, as the entry points for its offering. ArangoDB CEO and co-founder Claudius Weinberger, and ArangoDB Head of Engineering and Machine Learning Jörg Schad discuss multi-model, machine learning, hype, and the database market in general. Article published on ZDNet

The perfect observability storm with open source leading the way, and a partnership that makes sense. Open source is eating the world, and observability is no exception. New Relic and Grafana Labs just announced a partnership, and we discuss the specifics as well as the broader open source and observability landscape with Grafana Labs CEO Raj Dutt and New Relic Chief Product Officer Bill Staples. We cover everything from the rationale of the partnership, what it brings for users and how the integration was done, to open source, de facto and de jure standards for telemetry, and the use of AI and machine learning. Article published on ZDNet

Did you ever wonder how data is used in the medical industry? The picture that emerges leaves a lot to be desired. In the early 90s,the evidence-based medicine movement tried to make medicine more data-driven. Three decades later, we have more data, but not enough context, or transparency. Today's episode features David Scales, Chief Medical Officer at Critica, and an Assistant Professor of Medicine at Weill Cornell Medical College. Scales specialized in internal medicine, and also has a PhD in sociology, with a particular interest in the sociology of science. The conversation with David covers the fundamentals of evidence-based medicine, how data is generated through Randomized controlled trials and accessed via Cochrane Reviews. We draw parallels with best practices in data science and data governance, touching upon provenance, context, and metadata. We also explore the dark side of data in the medical industry: pharmaceutical company involvement, bias, the controversy around Cochrane, and the tyranny of the Randomized controlled trial. We also explore predictive models and data parasites in COVID-19 times, and the role of the World Health Organization. Articles published on ZDNet: https://linkeddataorchestration.com/2020/07/20/garbage-in-garbage-out-data-science-meet-evidence-based-medicine/ https://linkeddataorchestration.com/2020/07/27/data-governance-and-context-for-evidence-based-medicine-transparency-and-bias-in-covid-19-times/

jSonar offers a security layer that sits on top of databases. Let's face it: database security is not the most appealing topic for most people. Bennatan is very aware of it. That, however, has not stopped him and the jSonar team from carving out a spot for themselves. And it has not stopped Goldman Sachs from investing 50 million dollars in jSonar either. Let's hear why, and what makes jSonar special. Article published on ZDNet in June 2020

Data warehouses alone don't cut it. Data lakes alone don't cut it either. So whether you call it data lakehouse or by any other name, you need the best of both worlds, says Databricks. A new query engine and a visualization layer are the next pieces in Databricks' puzzle. We connected with Ali Ghodsi, co-founder and CEO of Databricks, to discuss their latest news: the announcement of a new query engine called Delta Engine, and the acquisition of Redash, an open source visualization product. Our discussion started with the background on data lakehouses, which is the term Databricks is advocating to signify the coalescing of data warehouses and data lakes.  We talked about trends such as multi cloud and machine learning that lead to a new reality, how data warehouses and data lakes work, and what does the data lakehouse bring to the table. We also talked about Delta Engine and Redash of course, and we wrapped up with an outlook on Databricks business growth. ZDNet article published in June 2020