Data News - February

Hey there!

I love February, because it means crepes and Mardi Gras. Also, the New York weather has been so kind that it felt like May (almost) all along.

I’m here bringing news! We’re adding another section to this newsletter:?Show and Tell.?And it’s all about Castor. We looked at the data and realized you didn’t love the “Data Jobs” section so we decided to replace it with something more fun ??. Each month, you’ll now get one article, one product update and one event from Castor. Other that that, it is business as usual.

In this edition you’ll find:

• One?data?tool?that we believe is worth digging into as a?data?person. We will also provide where it fits in the?data?ecosystem.
• A selection of the?most delightful articles?we read this month along with a quick teaser.
• The?data?person?you should follow right now if you don't already because he/she writes interesting content.
• Our new?Show and Tell:?Three great pieces of news from the Castor team.
• A?data meme?to make you smile.

Data Tool

Our favorite tool this month is?Upsolver. Upsolver is a data lake, but we're especially excited about its new service:?SQLake. This service caters to the growing demand for SQL-oriented, data pipeline automation. With SQLake, you don't have to manually code data pipelines anymore. Instead, you can simply declare the required data transformations from source to target, and the underlying engine handles the rest. Simply declaring your data pipeline with SQLake can save a significant amount of time compared to handwriting it. With SQLake, we've classified Upsolver as a third-generation ETL tool. Find the full landscape of ETL tools?here.

Data News

• Elbows of data.?Although this article was published in January, it still deserves a spot in this newsletter. Many organizations have environments where data teams cannot be successful. While this is a problem of company culture, it does not mean data teams are powerless.?Katie Bauer?prompts data teams to change their fate. To get in the plane’s cockpit, even if they’re not invited. To elbow their way in. A great read if you’re feeling disruptive.

• Should you measure the value of a data team??As an ecosystem, we've been thinking a lot about measuring the ROI of data teams. Yet, data teams act as support functions, and maybe we shouldn’t be trying to measure their performance. However, if you still wish to do so,?Anna Geller?provides several practical tips for measuring the value of a data team. Great piece, worth taking a look at!

• Metricalypse Now.?In what may be the biggest news of February, dbt labs?announced their acquisition of?Transform! The consolidation data folks have been predicting for a while is clearly on its way. The acquisition will accelerate development of the dbt Semantic Layer following its launch at?Coalesce 2022. Check out this great piece by?David Jayatillake?about the acquisition.

Data Person

This month, we want to put the spotlight on Katie Bauer, the Head of Data at?Glossgenius. Katie is known for building best-in-class data teams, and she shares her tips on the matter on?Substack,?Twitter, and?LinkedIn. If you're interested in learning more about building and managing data teams, you know where to go!

Show and Tell

Welcome to our new section of the newsletter, featuring some Castor News! We decided to put you in the loop with the latest updates from our team. Each month, this section will feature our most interesting article, our largest feature launch, and an upcoming event. Let’s go!

• Thomas, Senior Data Engineer at Castor, wrote an incredible article about crafting?data documentation like an expert. It was so jam-packed with knowledge that we turned it into a whole series. It's called "Data Documentation Demystified", and we're thrilled to announce that the?second article?is out now. This one covers the different use cases for documentation, and I bet you will love it. (Fun fact: Thomas also makes all the memes featured in the newsletter. Yes, he is a ??).

• ?? Exciting news:?We have just announced Sync Back to dbt!?With Sync Back, Data Admins can push table and column descriptions back to dbt directly from Castor. This means your data documentation now has one source of truth that's visible?within your native environment. If you're a data engineer, you can now view Castor documentation versioned alongside your code in Github - no more context-switching! Here’s what it looks like ??

• Last week, we hosted a webinar about data democratization with?Carson Wilshire?from Branch Insurance, and?Tristan Mayer?from Castor. We learned how to kickstart a data democratization journey, understood how data discovery can help along the way, and unpacked how bringing a product development mindset could help. Lucky for you, the?recording?is available!

Data Meme

And if you’re reading this newsletter just for the meme, here it is!

Cheers,

?? Louise from Castor ??