Check out my latest thoughts about Data Vault and Data Mesh:
Over the last six years (after I joined Snowflake basically), I have witnessed a massive increase in the interest and implementation of Data Vault 2.0. I have talked to literally hundreds of companies across the globe and across all industries about changing their approach to building an enterprise data platform. It was sort of mind boggling how many folks wanted to speak to me about this. So why, after almost two decades of successful data vault implementations, have so many people “suddenly” got interested in Data Vault?
Well, a few reasons:
1. They are moving to the cloud (in this case, Snowflake) and figured it was time to look at their approach to data warehousing and data lakes.
2. What they had been doing for decades, on critical review, really was not working (i.e., lots of expensive re-engineering all the time) and definitely could not scale.
3. Things are changing so rapidly, they needed to find a way to be more agile.
Read the rest of the post here on the Data Rebels site to find out how Data Vault relates to Data Mesh – Data Vault and Data Mesh
After six years and one month as the global evangelist for Snowflake (and almost 40 years in IT), I’ve decided to slow down and begin easing into retirement. As such, today is my last day at Snowflake.
I loved the Snowflake product so much that I gave up independent consulting to sign on (as employee 105) with this scrappy little startup in Silicon Valley (my first) and take a chance. Now at the end of 2021, the product is even more amazing than when I started and with #TheDataCloud it is changing the world of data.
The people and culture established by the founders, Benoit and Thierry, along with the leadership of Bob Muglia, Denise Persson, Chris Degnan, and Frank Slootman, have made this the best job (and longest) of my career. I cannot imagine a better way to bring this chapter to an end.
Thank you, Benoit and Thierry, for your vision and for inventing a new architecture for databases.
Thank you, Kyle Rourke and Todd Beauchene for introducing me to this amazing technology at that tiny meetup in Denver. Know you changed my life!
And finally, thank you Francis Mao for your incredible artwork (above) and especially for my Data Superhero uniform and avatar. The #DataWarrior never looked better!
It has been an honor and a pleasure to work with Snowflake from startup thru hypergrowth to the largest software IPO in history! What a wild and adventurous ride it has been. And I know the team will continue to go far and continue to disrupt the way we manage and get value from data long into the future (I am counting on it…after all I am a shareholder too!).
This will be an EPIC event that you will not want to miss.
Join me and the rest of the Snowflake team at Data Cloud Summit 2020! This year we are going virtual with eight business and technology summit tracks, filled with never-before-seen demos, customer presentations, fun interviews, fireside executive chats and, of course, technical deep dive sessions.
This is a totally FREE event that will deliver:
8 tracks
40+ Sessions
25+ partners
All focused on using the Snowflake Data Cloud to #MobilizeYourData!
Mark this date on your calendar – November 17, 8:30 AM – 2:30 PM PT.
And if you miss any part of the event, sessions will be available for replay immediately after.
Yup I traveled a lot in 2019. Mostly in my role as Chief Technical Evangelist for Snowflake, but some for family vacations (yes I do take those!).
Inspired by good friend Jeff Smith, here is my travel report based on Google location services. Surprisingly accurate (should I be concerned?).
While traveling this much can be taxing (especially on my family), it is a blessing to be able to see all these wonderful places and meet lots of wonderful people as part of my job at Snowflake, even if it means being a #RoadWarrior.
By The Numbers
174 miles on foot!
There are more miles when I did not have my phone
This includes a great hike with my family all the way from Waikiki Beach to the top of Diamond Head and then back.
2 miles by bike – I know that was in Berlin using an Uber Bike (a very neat and useful concept)
14,450 miles by mass transit (cars, trains)
And then a lot more air miles!
Wow. That adds up to 7 times around the world for an estimated 173,475 miles! Yikes.
In 2019 I got to explore both countries and cities I had never been to before, as well as some fo my old favorites.
New Locales:
In the “never been here before” category:
Stockholm, Sweden – first time ever to Sweden! Even in January it was quite fun with lots of sites to see including the Viking Museum.
Vikings!
Berlin, Germany
Dublin, Ireland – actually got to go there twice!
Madrid, Spain
Lisbon, Portugal – LOVED the seafood!
Amazing fresh, cheap, seafood in Lisbon
Hannover, Germany
Stuttgart, Germany
Zurich, Switzerland
Australia & New Zealand – I had two separate 2 week trips down under and got to see quite a bit, plus catch up with some old friends I had not seen in over 20 years.
Sydney (2x)
Melbourne (2x)
Canberra
Brisbane
Auckland (2x)
Cleveland, Ohio – yup, never been there before. Managed a visit to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (with Jeff Smith).
Costa Mesa, California
Old Favorites
I did manage to also visit places in the US where I have bene before like Dallas, Miami, Ft Lauderdale, Orlando, Santa Monica, Philadelphia, Honolulu (vacation), and Stowe (Vermont). I had LOTS of trips to San Francisco and San Mateo (where Snowflake HQ is located).
Outside the US, I got the pleasure of return visits to Rome (which I LOVE LOVE LOVE), Milan, London (2x), Amsterdam (2x), Utrecht (2x), Helsinki (Finland), and at the end of the year, a trip to snowy Montreal in Canada.
Me and Caeser in Rome
The Colosseum, RomePanini in Rome! What is Italia without food, gelato, and vino?
Where to next?
So where will I go in 2020? Stay tuned. The adventure continues…
Sailing on an America’s Cup boat in Auckland, NZ
Happy New Year 2020!
Kent
The Data (and Road) Warrior
P.S. One place I will be for sure in June is the Aria Hotel in Las Vegas where we will be hosting the 2nd Annual Snowflake Summit. We do expect it to SELL OUT again this year. Super Early Bird registration closes January 30th, so get your registration in today!
My good friend Mark Rittman has embarked on a new adventure as an independent analyst and consultant. As part of his new venture Mark started a new podcast series on iTunes that he calls Drill to Detail where he will feature interviews discussing a range of topics related to data warehousing, business intelligence, analytics, and big data.
I was honored to be asked to take part in this new venture and got to spend a hour with Mark a few weeks back recording what is now Episode 5 of the series. In this interview we talk about:
The need and relevance of data modeling in the big data world (which I wrote about recently)
The podcast is about 60 minutes with each topic being about 20 minutes (so feel free to skip ahead if you are short on time). Please have a listen and let us know what you think in the comments below.
Cheers!
Kent
The Data Warrior
P.S. I will be speaking on these and related topics at a bunch of events over the next few weeks. Check out my speaking schedule and join me in person if you can!
The Data Warrior 
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