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  • Snowflake vs. Databricks🌥️|Master essential query languages🧠|Databases Categories Are Becoming Obsolete☁️|ScyllaDB outperforms Cassandra⚡️|Snowflake vs Microsoft Fabric

Snowflake vs. Databricks🌥️|Master essential query languages🧠|Databases Categories Are Becoming Obsolete☁️|ScyllaDB outperforms Cassandra⚡️|Snowflake vs Microsoft Fabric

A lot of folks are interested in Snowflake versus Microsoft Fabric

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Also, check out the the weekly Deep Dive - Snowflake vs Microsoft Fabric, and Everything Else in Cloud Databases.

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DATA WAREHOUSE

The forever data war continues

TL;DR: Snowflake's public IPO brought volatility, while private Databricks enjoys stable funding, enabling long-term growth and innovation without short-term market pressures, highlighting strategic reasons to remain private longer.

  • Snowflake went public in 2020, experiencing initial stock excitement but later facing market volatility and valuation drops.

  • Databricks remains private, leveraging private funding to maintain stability and focus on long-term growth and innovation.

  • Being private allows Databricks to avoid short-term market pressures and freely invest in R&D and scaling operations.

  • The contrasting paths of Snowflake and Databricks highlight strategic considerations about timing and impacts of going public.

Why this matters: Databricks’s private status shields it from market volatility, enabling sustained innovation and growth, unlike Snowflake which faces public market pressures. This underscores crucial strategic decisions tech firms must make about timing IPOs to balance capital needs with long-term stability and competitive advantage.

DATABASE DEVELOPMENT

TL;DR: Developers must master top query languages like SQL, SPARQL, GraphQL, and NoSQL variants by 2025 to handle complex data, optimize processing, and unlock diverse career opportunities across industries.

  • Mastery of top query languages, including SQL, SPARQL, and GraphQL, is crucial for developers by 2025.

  • NoSQL query languages like CQL and N1QL address the needs of non-relational database structures.

  • Familiarity with diverse query languages enables handling complex data across multiple platforms effectively.

  • Proficiency in various query languages opens career opportunities in big data, web development, and semantic web fields.

Why this matters: Mastering diverse query languages is essential as data complexity and storage models evolve. Developers skilled in both relational and NoSQL querying enhance cross-platform data handling, driving innovation and career growth in emerging fields like big data and semantic web technologies by 2025.

TL;DR: Traditional database categories are fading as hybrid, multi-model cloud-native databases emerge, simplifying development and operations while requiring businesses and professionals to prioritize flexibility, integration, and scalable data management solutions.

  • Traditional database categories like relational, NoSQL, and graph are becoming obsolete due to evolving application needs.

  • Modern databases blend multiple features, creating hybrid systems that simplify development and reduce operational complexity.

  • Cloud-native databases and managed services drive adoption of multi-model, scalable, and highly available systems.

  • Businesses now prioritize functionality and integration over categories, requiring professionals to adapt to versatile, hybrid databases.

Why this matters: The collapse of traditional database categories signals a shift toward versatile, hybrid systems that streamline development and better meet diverse application demands. This transformation driven by cloud-native platforms compels organizations and professionals to prioritize integration and adaptability, fostering innovation and simplifying data management in the cloud era.

NOSQL

TL;DR: ScyllaDB enhances Cassandra's architecture with shard-per-core design, offering lower latency, higher throughput, and better efficiency, challenging Cassandra's dominance and influencing big data, real-time analytics, and cloud deployments.

  • ScyllaDB innovates on Cassandra’s architecture with shard-per-core design for improved CPU and memory efficiency.

  • ScyllaDB delivers lower latency and higher throughput, providing more predictable and scalable performance under heavy loads.

  • Both databases have evolved with enhanced operational tools, enterprise features, and active community-driven updates.

  • ScyllaDB challenges Cassandra’s dominance, impacting big data, real-time analytics, and cloud-native deployment choices.

Why this matters: ScyllaDB’s architectural innovations significantly improve performance and resource efficiency over Cassandra, reshaping choices for scalable, low-latency databases. As data demands grow, enterprises benefit from these advanced capabilities, enabling better real-time analytics and cloud-native applications, ultimately driving modernization in distributed database technology.

VECTOR DATABASE

TL;DR: Traditional vector search faces limits in scaling and accuracy, prompting hybrid models combining symbolic reasoning and embeddings to improve semantic understanding, scalability, and explainability in AI-driven information retrieval.

  • Vector search technology is reaching limits in scalability, efficiency, and accuracy as datasets grow exponentially.

  • Hybrid models combining symbolic reasoning and vector techniques improve precision and interpretability in search results.

  • Integrating knowledge graphs with embeddings enhances semantic understanding and delivers more context-aware retrieval.

  • Advances in hybrid search promise scalable, explainable AI, transforming natural language processing and recommendation applications.

Why this matters: As vector search nears its limits, hybrid approaches blending symbolic reasoning and embeddings unlock more precise, contextually rich, and scalable AI search. This evolution enables better data understanding, trustworthiness, and transformative advances in NLP and recommendations, crucial for handling ever-growing complex datasets.

EVERYTHING ELSE IN CLOUD DATABASES

DEEP DIVE
Snowflake versus Microsoft Fabric

Last week, I had a very popular section of the newsletter about Snowflake versus Microsoft Fabric. In the back of my mind I kind of knew that each of these platforms were pitted against each other, but I had no idea that it would generate that much interest.

Here is a brief table comparison on the features that both Snowflake and Microsoft Fabric offer:

Aspect

Snowflake

Microsoft Fabric

Architecture

Cloud-native data warehouse with decoupled storage, compute, and services layers; supports multi-cloud (AWS, Azure, GCP); uses micro-partitioning and automatic clustering for SQL workloads.

Unified SaaS platform based on Lakehouse architecture with OneLake as centralized data layer; separates compute and storage; supports lakehouse, warehousing, real-time analytics, and AI.

Features

Focuses on data warehousing with scalable storage/compute, SQL/Python support, data sharing, marketplace, Snowpark for AI/ML, time travel, and secure cloning; handles structured/semi-structured data.

Comprehensive suite including Data Factory, Engineering (Spark), Science (Azure ML), Warehouse, Real-Time Intelligence, Power BI, and governance via Purview; built-in AI/Copilot; supports all data types.

Pricing

Pay-per-use with separate billing for storage and compute; additional costs for integrations like BI tools and orchestration; potentially higher TCO due to add-ons.

Capacity-based model with unified billing covering all features (e.g., Power BI, AI); lower TCO as a single platform; no separate charges for storage/compute in the same way.

Integration

Requires connectors for BI (e.g., Power BI, Tableau) and external tools; strong multi-cloud support but less native with Microsoft ecosystem.

Deep integration with Microsoft 365, Azure, Power Platform, and Purview; seamless embedding in Teams/Excel; supports open formats like Delta/Parquet.

Performance & Scalability

High concurrency via MPP and virtual warehouses; automatic elasticity; excels in read-heavy, large-scale analytics with low latency.

Elastic scaling on Azure; strong in real-time/high-throughput workloads; dynamic resource allocation in unified workspace.

Security

Robust security with high availability; multi-cloud support; advanced features like secure data sharing.

Integrated with Purview for governance/security; high availability in Microsoft ecosystem.

Use Cases

Best for SQL-focused teams, traditional warehousing, multi-cloud environments, and customized solutions with external tools; suits IT/data engineers.

Ideal for Microsoft-centric organizations needing end-to-end analytics (ETL to BI), real-time/AI integration, and low-code tools; targets analysts/BI users.

Pros

Flexible scaling, cost-efficient for specific workloads, strong data sharing/marketplace, cross-cloud compatibility.

Unified experience, lower TCO, built-in AI/BI, easy collaboration in Microsoft ecosystem.

Cons

Higher TCO with add-ons, requires more integrations, less native BI/AI.

May be complex for non-Microsoft users, tied to Azure ecosystem.

What I see anecdotally is that large firms like their little fiefdoms. What I mean is that when an operational group likes a platform, they stick with it, and don’t relent.

We as data practitioners have to be aware of what all of these platforms are capable of. To a lot of us, it really is a full time job.

As always, I dig into the Snowflake versus Microsoft Fabric discussion, here on my blog. You will also find a lot of other well researched comparisons on the blog as well.

Gladstone Benjamin