DELETE Doesn’t Delete Data: Understanding DELETE, VACUUM, and Time Travel in Delta Lake
Your Delta table has grown to 20 TB. To reduce storage costs, you have decided to remove several years of obsolete data. Millions of records disappear. The query succeeds. Everyone expects the storage bill to drop. A week later, the table is smaller logically, but the storage consumption is exactly the same. What happened? The […]
Introducing VDAB, the Visual Data App Builder
For years, data teams have been asked to do more than just manage data. They build pipelines, clean data, create dashboards, support AI initiatives, answer business questions, and now they are also asked to build applications. That is why we are introducing VDAB, the Visual Data App Builder.
Databricks Data + AI Summit 2026 Recap – Wisconsin Databricks User Group
Building Once, Launching Everywhere: Why Flutter Is a Smart Choice for Cross-Platform Apps
In today’s digital environment, it’s no longer enough for businesses to simply have an app. Users want software available to them anytime, and anywhere. Whether that means using a phone while traveling, a tablet in the field, a desktop computer in the office, or a web browser at home. This shift has made cross-platform development […]
Databricks Data + AI Summit 2026 – Recap & Update
It’s been a couple of weeks since the announcements at DAIS 2026, and I wanted to give a recap of the most exciting new Databricks features, and give an update on what has changed since the Summit wrapped.
Building a Secure Foundation for Azure Databricks: Lessons from Designing a Secure Reference Architecture
In today’s digital environment, it’s no longer enough for businesses to simply have an app. Users want software available to them anytime, and anywhere. Whether that means using a phone while traveling, a tablet in the field, a desktop computer in the office, or a web browser at home. This shift has made cross-platform development […]
Tuning a Genie Space until analysts trusted it: how Spaces ended up coexisting with Power BI
As a Data Engineer, I spend far more time working as the glue between systems than actually implementing new logic. Business wants a question answered. Analysts go check the semantic layer to see if the answer already exists, and a lot of the time it doesn’t, let alone exists as a Power BI dashboard somewhere.
Auto Loader vs COPY INTO in Databricks: A Decision Guide for Data Engineers
In modern lakehouse pipelines, one of the first ingestion decisions data engineers face is whether to use Auto Loader or COPY INTO. Both can load files incrementally into Delta tables, but they solve very different operational problems. Choosing the wrong one can impact scalability, cost, reliability, and maintenance overhead.
A Field Study: Databricks Genie vs Microsoft Fabric
Recently I have been leading an assessment for a global industrial manufacturer comparing Databricks Genie against an already mature Microsoft Power BI/Fabric environment. Genie feels like an up-and-coming platform gaining significant momentum alongside more established incumbents.
Software Vendor vs a Technology Partner
After building custom software for more than 30 years, I can tell you that most projects encounter detours along the way. Many have approached us with a well-defined project, a clear set of requirements, a budget, a deadline, and they need “someone to get that software built and launched… ASAP!” Choosing between a vendor and a technology […]