Ananth Packkildurai
@ananthdurai.bsky.social
Editor Data Engineering Weekly; subscribe www.dataengineeringweekly.com. In Prgress, LakeByte
As we move from dashboards to autonomous agents, something breaks.
Systems of record capture what happened, not why.
Why data platforms need Truth Registries + Context Graphs for the agentic era 👇
www.dataengineeringw...
#DataEngineering #AgenticAI #Graphs #LLMs
Systems of record capture what happened, not why.
Why data platforms need Truth Registries + Context Graphs for the agentic era 👇
www.dataengineeringw...
#DataEngineering #AgenticAI #Graphs #LLMs
The Missing Layer in Your AI Stack: Context, Not Just State
From SQL to Semantics: The Rise of the Context Graph for AI Agents
www.dataengineeringweekly.com
January 31, 2026 at 4:19 AM
As we move from dashboards to autonomous agents, something breaks.
Systems of record capture what happened, not why.
Why data platforms need Truth Registries + Context Graphs for the agentic era 👇
www.dataengineeringw...
#DataEngineering #AgenticAI #Graphs #LLMs
Systems of record capture what happened, not why.
Why data platforms need Truth Registries + Context Graphs for the agentic era 👇
www.dataengineeringw...
#DataEngineering #AgenticAI #Graphs #LLMs
Data Engineering Weekly's 254th edition is out. Context Graph is the new talk of the town!!
January 26, 2026 at 4:17 AM
Data Engineering Weekly's 254th edition is out. Context Graph is the new talk of the town!!
The companies that build the most boring data stack often win the market!!!
Prove me wrong.
Prove me wrong.
January 23, 2026 at 3:30 PM
The companies that build the most boring data stack often win the market!!!
Prove me wrong.
Prove me wrong.
Data Contract: There was no shortage of activity around the topic. Definitions were proposed and refined. Conceptual boundaries were drawn and redrawn.
I pen down a reflection of the Data Contracts here
www.dataengineeringweekly.com/p/data-contr...
I pen down a reflection of the Data Contracts here
www.dataengineeringweekly.com/p/data-contr...
Data Contracts: A Missed Opportunity
The Conversation We Should Have Had—Before Thought Leadership Replaced System Design
www.dataengineeringweekly.com
January 20, 2026 at 11:02 PM
Data Contract: There was no shortage of activity around the topic. Definitions were proposed and refined. Conceptual boundaries were drawn and redrawn.
I pen down a reflection of the Data Contracts here
www.dataengineeringweekly.com/p/data-contr...
I pen down a reflection of the Data Contracts here
www.dataengineeringweekly.com/p/data-contr...
How to build a scalable shopping agent?
Here's a wild thought:
What if—and hear me out—we let humans click that Buy Now button? Just throwing ideas out there.
Here's a wild thought:
What if—and hear me out—we let humans click that Buy Now button? Just throwing ideas out there.
January 14, 2026 at 1:04 AM
How to build a scalable shopping agent?
Here's a wild thought:
What if—and hear me out—we let humans click that Buy Now button? Just throwing ideas out there.
Here's a wild thought:
What if—and hear me out—we let humans click that Buy Now button? Just throwing ideas out there.
This week, it is mostly about Multi-Agent Architecture. Do you think the data infrastructure is ready for a multi-agent architecture? Where is the gap?
Data Engineering Weekly #252
The Weekly Data Engineering Newsletter
www.dataengineeringweekly.com
January 12, 2026 at 2:40 AM
This week, it is mostly about Multi-Agent Architecture. Do you think the data infrastructure is ready for a multi-agent architecture? Where is the gap?
Is semantic Spec Good enough to run an enterprise system? I listed challenges to adopting the Iceberg Rest Catalog
A Critique of Iceberg REST Catalog: A Classic Case of Why Semantic Spec Fails
How a Semantically Correct API Becomes Operationally Unreliable at Scale
www.dataengineeringweekly.com
January 9, 2026 at 6:16 AM
Is semantic Spec Good enough to run an enterprise system? I listed challenges to adopting the Iceberg Rest Catalog
Continuing our yearly tradition of Year in Review Data Engineering Weekly, we published the 2025 Year in Review. What do you think is the most notable trend of 2025?
DEW - The Year in Review 2025
From Digital Plumbers to Architects of Intelligence: The 7 Paradigm Shifts That Defined 2025
www.dataengineeringweekly.com
December 23, 2025 at 5:04 AM
Continuing our yearly tradition of Year in Review Data Engineering Weekly, we published the 2025 Year in Review. What do you think is the most notable trend of 2025?
December 16, 2025 at 2:24 AM
Look at the tech stack IBM now controls:
🐧 Compute: Red Hat (Linux/OpenShift)
☁️ IaC: HashiCorp (Terraform)
💰 FinOps: Kubecost
🌊 Streaming: Confluent (Kafka)
🧠 Vector/AI: DataStax (Cassandra)
⚡ Query Engine: Ahana (Presto)
🔄 Ingest: StreamSets
🐧 Compute: Red Hat (Linux/OpenShift)
☁️ IaC: HashiCorp (Terraform)
💰 FinOps: Kubecost
🌊 Streaming: Confluent (Kafka)
🧠 Vector/AI: DataStax (Cassandra)
⚡ Query Engine: Ahana (Presto)
🔄 Ingest: StreamSets
December 8, 2025 at 7:06 PM
Look at the tech stack IBM now controls:
🐧 Compute: Red Hat (Linux/OpenShift)
☁️ IaC: HashiCorp (Terraform)
💰 FinOps: Kubecost
🌊 Streaming: Confluent (Kafka)
🧠 Vector/AI: DataStax (Cassandra)
⚡ Query Engine: Ahana (Presto)
🔄 Ingest: StreamSets
🐧 Compute: Red Hat (Linux/OpenShift)
☁️ IaC: HashiCorp (Terraform)
💰 FinOps: Kubecost
🌊 Streaming: Confluent (Kafka)
🧠 Vector/AI: DataStax (Cassandra)
⚡ Query Engine: Ahana (Presto)
🔄 Ingest: StreamSets
LinkedIn moves FishDB to Rust, DoorDash builds AI swarms, and Dropbox masters context engineering. 🤯 Data Engineering Weekly #247 is packed with system design deep dives from the best engineering teams.
Data Engineering Weekly #247
The Weekly Data Engineering Newsletter
www.dataengineeringweekly.com
December 8, 2025 at 1:31 AM
LinkedIn moves FishDB to Rust, DoorDash builds AI swarms, and Dropbox masters context engineering. 🤯 Data Engineering Weekly #247 is packed with system design deep dives from the best engineering teams.
If the Data Catalog is the answer for AI, the question was wrong.
December 4, 2025 at 7:10 PM
If the Data Catalog is the answer for AI, the question was wrong.
We stopped asking if data was useful because storage got cheap. Now, "Dark Data" is actively poisoning your AI context windows with hallucination vectors.
Read about the Data Sustainability index
Read about the Data Sustainability index
The Dark Data Tax: How Hoarding is Poisoning Your AI
Storage is cheap. Attention is finite. Hallucinations are expensive. It’s time to stop building Data Lakes and start managing Data Metabolism
www.dataengineeringweekly.com
November 19, 2025 at 3:01 PM
We stopped asking if data was useful because storage got cheap. Now, "Dark Data" is actively poisoning your AI context windows with hallucination vectors.
Read about the Data Sustainability index
Read about the Data Sustainability index
The open source companies built their success on top of open-source platforms, benefited from community contributions and adoption, but now must abandon open-source principles to survive commercially.
November 10, 2025 at 2:47 AM
The open source companies built their success on top of open-source platforms, benefited from community contributions and adoption, but now must abandon open-source principles to survive commercially.
🚀 The 244th edition of Data Engineering Weekly dives into:
AI agents as execution engines, LLM inference economics, databases for AI, personalization, and product evidence.
Read more 👉 www.dataengineeringw...
#DataEngineering #AI #LLMs
AI agents as execution engines, LLM inference economics, databases for AI, personalization, and product evidence.
Read more 👉 www.dataengineeringw...
#DataEngineering #AI #LLMs
Data Engineering Weekly #244
The Weekly Data Engineering Newsletter
www.dataengineeringweekly.com
November 3, 2025 at 9:29 AM
🚀 The 244th edition of Data Engineering Weekly dives into:
AI agents as execution engines, LLM inference economics, databases for AI, personalization, and product evidence.
Read more 👉 www.dataengineeringw...
#DataEngineering #AI #LLMs
AI agents as execution engines, LLM inference economics, databases for AI, personalization, and product evidence.
Read more 👉 www.dataengineeringw...
#DataEngineering #AI #LLMs
Cricket has been India’s greatest force in overcoming centuries of colonial suppression. Today’s Women’s World Cup win echoes the spirit of 1983 — a triumph that will inspire generations to come. 🇮🇳🏆
November 3, 2025 at 12:40 AM
Cricket has been India’s greatest force in overcoming centuries of colonial suppression. Today’s Women’s World Cup win echoes the spirit of 1983 — a triumph that will inspire generations to come. 🇮🇳🏆
This is the most personal essay that I have written in Data Engineering Weekly. I shared a few key moments in my life and how fortunate I was to meet mentors along my professional journey, which shaped my career.
Thinking Like a Data Engineer
A Journey Beyond Code — Toward Systems, Curiosity, and Confidence
www.dataengineeringweekly.com
October 23, 2025 at 12:25 AM
This is the most personal essay that I have written in Data Engineering Weekly. I shared a few key moments in my life and how fortunate I was to meet mentors along my professional journey, which shaped my career.
🚀 Data Vault vs. Dimensional Modeling vs. Medallion Architecture — When viewed through a modern enterprise data lens, these techniques interlock.
I break down how in Part 2 of my “Revisiting the Medallion Architecture” series.
I break down how in Part 2 of my “Revisiting the Medallion Architecture” series.
Revisiting Medallion Architecture: Data Vault in Silver, Dimensional Modeling in Gold
How to Balance Flexibility and Performance in a Modern Data Platform
www.dataengineeringweekly.com
October 17, 2025 at 2:54 PM
🚀 Data Vault vs. Dimensional Modeling vs. Medallion Architecture — When viewed through a modern enterprise data lens, these techniques interlock.
I break down how in Part 2 of my “Revisiting the Medallion Architecture” series.
I break down how in Part 2 of my “Revisiting the Medallion Architecture” series.
Fivetran and dbt form a strong foundation for modern data infrastructure, known for bringing simplicity to complex engineering workflows. That said, calling it “open” data infrastructure feels like a stretch.
October 17, 2025 at 12:02 PM
Fivetran and dbt form a strong foundation for modern data infrastructure, known for bringing simplicity to complex engineering workflows. That said, calling it “open” data infrastructure feels like a stretch.
Should we update the definition of an "Analytical Engineer"?
October 13, 2025 at 5:53 PM
Should we update the definition of an "Analytical Engineer"?
As a data engineer, you can't treat zero-party (consent) and third-party (inferred) data the same way. This distinction is critical for building systems that are scalable, private, and trustworthy.
Here’s my guide:
Here’s my guide:
Engineering Growth: The Data Layers Powering Modern GTM
Building privacy-preserving pipelines that unify zero-, first-, second-, third-, and fourth-party data into a coherent GTM ecosystem.
www.dataengineeringweekly.com
October 9, 2025 at 12:35 AM
As a data engineer, you can't treat zero-party (consent) and third-party (inferred) data the same way. This distinction is critical for building systems that are scalable, private, and trustworthy.
Here’s my guide:
Here’s my guide:
Airbnb: Real-Time Key-Value Store
Airbnb’s next-gen key-value store supports real-time ingestion and bulk uploads with sub-second latency, powering feature stores and fraud detection.
Read the full story here: www.dataengineeringw...
Airbnb’s next-gen key-value store supports real-time ingestion and bulk uploads with sub-second latency, powering feature stores and fraud detection.
Read the full story here: www.dataengineeringw...
October 2, 2025 at 1:00 PM
Airbnb: Real-Time Key-Value Store
Airbnb’s next-gen key-value store supports real-time ingestion and bulk uploads with sub-second latency, powering feature stores and fraud detection.
Read the full story here: www.dataengineeringw...
Airbnb’s next-gen key-value store supports real-time ingestion and bulk uploads with sub-second latency, powering feature stores and fraud detection.
Read the full story here: www.dataengineeringw...
Grab: Partner Gateway Metrics at Sub-Second Speed
Real-time partner analytics at scale is tough. Grab uses Apache Pinot, Kafka–Flink ingestion, partitioning, and Star-tree indexing to cut query latency to <300 ms, enabling efficient API monitoring and fast issue resolution.
Real-time partner analytics at scale is tough. Grab uses Apache Pinot, Kafka–Flink ingestion, partitioning, and Star-tree indexing to cut query latency to <300 ms, enabling efficient API monitoring and fast issue resolution.
October 1, 2025 at 1:00 PM
Grab: Partner Gateway Metrics at Sub-Second Speed
Real-time partner analytics at scale is tough. Grab uses Apache Pinot, Kafka–Flink ingestion, partitioning, and Star-tree indexing to cut query latency to <300 ms, enabling efficient API monitoring and fast issue resolution.
Real-time partner analytics at scale is tough. Grab uses Apache Pinot, Kafka–Flink ingestion, partitioning, and Star-tree indexing to cut query latency to <300 ms, enabling efficient API monitoring and fast issue resolution.
Netflix Muse: Scaling Analytics at Trillion-Row Scale
Netflix evolved its Muse architecture to handle huge datasets efficiently: HyperLogLog sketches, Hollow in-memory feeds, and Druid optimizations cut query latency by ~50% and reduced concurrency load.
Netflix evolved its Muse architecture to handle huge datasets efficiently: HyperLogLog sketches, Hollow in-memory feeds, and Druid optimizations cut query latency by ~50% and reduced concurrency load.
September 30, 2025 at 12:33 PM
Netflix Muse: Scaling Analytics at Trillion-Row Scale
Netflix evolved its Muse architecture to handle huge datasets efficiently: HyperLogLog sketches, Hollow in-memory feeds, and Druid optimizations cut query latency by ~50% and reduced concurrency load.
Netflix evolved its Muse architecture to handle huge datasets efficiently: HyperLogLog sketches, Hollow in-memory feeds, and Druid optimizations cut query latency by ~50% and reduced concurrency load.