Hey fellow data warriors! Here is a new joint blog post I just did with fellow data warrior Dale Anderson from Talend! Check it out. I hope you find the concept compelling!
So you want to build a Data Lake? Ok, sure let’s talk about that. Perhaps you think a Data Lake will eliminate the need for a Data Warehouse and all your business users will merely lure business analytics from it easily. Maybe you think putting everything into Big Data technologies like Hadoop will resolve all your data challenges and deliver fast data processing with Spark delivering cool Machine Learning insights that magically give you a competitive edge. And really, with NoSQL, nobody needs a data model anymore, right?
Avoid the data swamp! Use modern cloud based DWaaS (Snowflake) and the leading-edge Data Integration tool (Talend) to build a Governed Data Lake.
Finally! People have been asking for this literally for years – to be able to get authentic Data Vault 2.0 (CDVP2) training in an online format.
Many folks interested in achieving CDVP2, especially those who have issues traveling, have requested an online version of Certified Data Vault 2.0 Practitioner (CDVP2) training. Their issues may be distances to the actual courses, no travel budget, or just the usual personal & family issues where they need to stay close to home.
Keeping this in mind, Dan and Sanjay have been in the process of prepping and recording the CDVP2 training for online dissemination. But with Dan’s travel schedule, from the increasing demand globally for CDVP2 training, it has just taken a long time to do it right.
That said – what is now available should be considered the Early Adopter (EA) version of the training. So before you think of investing, please read the rest of this post as it’s possible this training is not for you and I’ll tell you why in a minute.
But first, lets see what’s available:
1. Day 1 of the CDVP2 is currently available for sale as “Introduction to Data Vault 2.0“. This does stand on it’s own and gives you a very good introduction to the training (This is still a bit INCOMPLETE but available for sale – remember this is EA)
2. Days 2 and 3 do NOT stand on their own and will be rolled into the entire CDVP2 training. So, it’s the entire course which includes Day 1 (This is also INCOMPLETE but not yet available for sale, but will be shortly)
Here’s what I mean by incomplete:
The “Introduction to Data Vault 2.0” has 10 modules and only 8 are actually available to view. Even out of the 8 modules a few of the latter ones are actually raw and unedited and will get replaced with their edited versions in the future.
The good news however it that as an Early Adopter, you will get lifetime access, so you will get ALL future versions of this particular course for your lifetime.
Because they’re doing this, they’d like you to do your part, if and when you invest in courses: do not share access to the course material. (You should NEVER tell anyone your confidential access code anyway, right?)
While the system can detect and prevent improper access (and they do have a legal team), they are going to trust that the majority of people are honest folks.
NB: There are NO refunds this time. I know LearnDataVault.com traditionally offers refunds but they really want you to actually think twice about it before investing and be sure that it’s a sound investment in your future.
So, here’s who should NOT invest:
If you need the protection of a refund, please don’t invest. They simply are not offering these at the moment on these courses.
If you’re not comfortable being an Early Adopter and buying something that is incomplete and subject to change, then this is NOT for you.
If you need to go into debt to invest in it, despite it’s relatively low cost, then please get your finances in order first before you invest in any of these courses.
Now that that’s taken care of …
Who should invest:
If you’re an Early Adopter and comfortable with something that’s incomplete and subject to change because it’s in it’s raw form.
You understand the value of lifetime access and updates and are willing to jump on something incomplete to get a discount and understand the risks that it can take time to get the rest of the modules completed and edited. There can be long delays in getting that done.
If you’re comfortable getting unedited raw content and know it will change and you’re willing to provide constructive feedback.
So, you decide whether you want to wait and get the finalized version for a little more money (which will also come with lifetime access) or whether you’re comfortable simply going with the raw versions now.
So, please, please think before jumping on this.
Yes, there’s a discount for a short period but it does come with strings of not having a completed product and you should not complain about it.
Remember, there are NO refunds.
However, if this is for you, there is a discount. Even then, please read everything again before you consider investing in this.
So if you are going to buy, here’s what you get:
List of video modules
Introduction
What is Data Vault 2.0?
DataVault 1.0 Versus DataVault 2.0
Issues Faced Today
DataVault in Business
Managed Self Serviced BI
Agile Delivery and Methodology (Not edited yet)
Agile Requirements Gathering (Not edited yet)
Technical Numbering (Not recorded yet)
Roles and Releases (Not recorded yet)
The course (Day 1) will sell for $997 retail, but you can get $300 off the price by using the discount coupon DV2VIP599O4791 (Expires this Friday March 24th 2017)
No fancy offer page. Just a video and a buy button here:
Please remember there are no refunds and to get the best deal on the Early Adopter offer ($300 off), you must purchase by Friday March 24th, 2017. After that, the price goes up to $997.
So if you have been waiting to get Data Vault 2.o training straight from the inventor, Dan “Data Vault” Linstedt – this is your chance! Get it here.
Happy Vaulting!
Kent
The Data Warrior
NB: I have seen the videos and can say the content is the quality and caliber I expect from Dan and Sanjay, but you should also know that by buying via the links in this post, I will get a cut. Thank you.
P.S. Don’t forget about the upcoming World Wide Data Vault Consortium in Stowe this May. Sign up here.
Over the years, I have had numerous conversations about the value of having referential integrity (RI) constraints, such as primary and foreign keys, in a relational data warehouse or data mart.
Many DBAs object that RI constraints slow the load process. This is a valid point if you are talking about enforced constraints that are checked in real-time during the load. But this is not an issue if you define the constraints as disabled.
Which then leads to this common question:
Is there any reason to maintain a permanently disabled FK in the data model? If it is not going to be enabled, then from my perspective, it doesn’t make any sense to define the FK. Instead, the relationship can be described in the comment of the child column.
So, why would I want RI constraints in my data warehouse?
Big Data. NoSQL. The Cloud. Self-service<whatever>.
And Cloud Data Warehousing.
Some of the offerings and solutions are real. Some less so.
Newest on the scene is cloud data warehousing (or data warehousing in the cloud). As with all new tech, there are a variety of offerings out there with different characteristics. To help folks try to understand the space a bit more, the company I work for (Snowflake Computing) put together a (hopefully) hype-free, vendor agnostic book on the topic called Cloud Data Warehousing for Dummies, which I blogged about last month. If you have not already gotten a copy and read it, I encourage you to do so soon. I think you will find it very helpful in the coming months as this topic heats up.
It is where data warehousing is going. Period.
But is Cloud Data Warehousing really for real?
I may be biased here (okay, likely), but based on my experience working with Snowflake for over a year now, I have to say yes. Emphatically, yes!
Cloud Data Warehousing is real. It can handle real data and real workloads. To the tune of hundreds of terabytes and even petabytes of structured, and semi-structured, data, all for a fraction of the cost of traditional on-premises data warehouse solutions, and with the ease of administration you expect from a cloud-based SaaS solution.
But, as they say, the proof is in the pudding!
So here are a few proof-points for you from real, live customers, who have been using Snowflake to improve their business outcomes.
AthenaHealth
AthenaHealth is a leading healthcare services provider (with a network of 85,000 providers and 83 million patients nationwide). So yes, it is possible to have a cloud data warehouse that is secure enough to pass HIPAA regulations for holding PHI (Personal Healthcare Information).
In this video, Adam Weinstein, Executive Director of Analytics & Data Science explains how AthenaHealth leverages the Snowflake Cloud Data Warehouse service to radically accelerate their reporting with real-time updates, more advanced analytics, and machine-learning, while minimizing overhead and maintenance.
Some of the key benefits AthenaHelth experienced using Snowflake:
Ability to work with petabytes of healthcare data
Ability to scale to meet analytic needs both internally and externally
Lower total cost of ownership (TCO) than other options
Ability to support machine learning-based products
Reduction in overhead maintenance thanks to the Snowflake service offering
Says Adam:
What I see Snowflake enabling us to deliver to our clients, internal stakeholders and paying customers will be pretty freaking cool!
Iovation
Iovation is the leading SaaS provider of fraud prevention and multifactor authentication solutions. So needless to say, they know security and they feel very secure with their data in the cloud.
In this video, Kurk Spendlove, Director of Engineering, shares why they switched from Vertica to the Snowflake Cloud Data Warehouse service in order to load semi-structured data directly into the cloud data warehouse and analyze years of data in a matter of minutes.
Some of the key benefits Iovation experienced using Snowflake:
Ability to load semi-structured data directly into Snowflake
Loading schema-less data – not having to modify schema every time data is changing in new weekly releases
Ability to scan through years’ worth of data and having the report back in minutes
Powerful support for new machine learning-based products
Minimize management for data warehouse and overhead
Kurk says:
I’m a big fan of Snowflake and the people behind it.
Rue La La
Rue La La is a flash sale site with over 18 million members looking for great deals on designer fashion and accessories.
Director of BI and Data Warehousing at Rue La La, Erick Roesch says:
Snowflake’s separation of compute and storage is just revolutionary!
In this video, he explains how they replaced their legacy data warehouse and Hadoop data lake with a Snowflake Cloud Data Warehouse to merge data sources for fast, data-driven business decisions.
Key benefits Rue La La saw from switching to Snowflake:
Merge different data sources for data-driven insights- 360-view of their customers!
Better targeted marketing and promotions to Rue La La members based on their personalized preferences
Better purchasing decisions for Merchandising and planning dept – they can learn more about context of the product, avoid having residual inventory of things that don’t sell
All data in one place in real time– internal and external data feeds (demographic, census, geo-location data)
No admin and infrastructure costs
Streamlined development cycles -traditional development activities and processes become very simple
Sharethrough
Sharethrough is the leading global native advertising (adtech) platform. In this short video listen to the Head of Analytics, Joseph Bates, explain how they were able to drastically reduce query times, streamline complex processes, and build new data pipelines by switching from MySQL to the Snowflake Cloud Data Warehouse.
Some key benefits Sharethrough saw from using Snowflake:
Reduced query times from hours to seconds (before, basic queries took an hour to return)
Streamline complex processes with minimal cost
“Query that used to take an entire weekend & $1,200 of compute time to run, now in Snowflake runs with bare minimum ETL, 4 lines of SQL in 30 seconds.”
Minimal database administration
Joseph’s conclusion:
The next step will be to see how we can build new data pipelines and meet the demands of our business, and I think Snowflake is unparalleled in this regard.
Cloud Data Warehousing is not just hype
Hopefully you can see by the passion and excitement from these customers, that it is not all hype. The promise of the cloud combined with a next-generation SQL-based data warehouse engine is in fact delivering the goods.
I am even more excited about the possibilities now than when I joined a year ago. It is awesome to see what these, and other companies are doing to transform their businesses and really challenging the status quo of in not only the data warehousing arena, but big data as well.
Cloud data warehousing is a game changer.
Maybe we can have it all?
For even more exciting customer stories check out the Snowflake channel on YouTube.
If this tech excites you too, please share on social media with any and all who love data and want to change the story for enterprise data warehousing! And don’t forget to follow Snowflake on twitter @snowflakedb for more customer success stories, upcoming webinars, and product announcements.
This is the time of year when we all make plans and set goals for the new year, right?
So what are you going to do different this year? How about grow your career by learning something new?
How?
Read a book on an area of tech you are not so familiar with. Cloud perhaps? My recommendation, of course, is to check out the new Cloud Data Warehouse for Dummies book I mentioned in my post last month. Or maybe one of my ebooks listed on the blog sidebar?
Attend a webinar. My favorite user group, ODTUG, has a continuous lineup of FREE webinars through out the year. You can see the list and sign up here. (I will be giving one next week!)
Attend a conference or meetup. As I mentioned in my post on staying current, nothing beats meeting and learning from folks face-to-face. Plan ahead, budget some time and training money to attend one of the many industry events that happen all year. For some ideas, check out my speaking schedule for 2017 with options around the US.
So what will it be? If possible try to do at least one of each – read a book, attend a webinar, go to a meetup!
Make 2017 a great year!
Kent
The Data Warrior
P.S. If you plan to attend any of my in-person talks, please drop me a line to let me know! And be sure to follow me on twitter or check my schedule periodically as I am adding new talks and locations all the time.
The Data Warrior 
You must be logged in to post a comment.