The PRQL: Bringing Innovation to the Lowest Level of Databases

Eric Dodds 00:06
Welcome to The Data Stack Show prequel where we chat about the show that we just recorded to give you a sneak preview. Kostas, databases have come up so much recently, we talked about it in a recent shoptalk episode. We’ve had different technologies, really throughout the life of the show. But we just recorded a fascinating show with Stavros from TileDB. And one of the interesting things about TileDB is that they really focused on solving certain problems at the storage level, which is really interesting. So moving sort of further down, you know, moving further down, sort of the technology stack as it relates to databases, right, as opposed to taking, you know, sort of an established database paradigm, and building on top of it to accomplish something like streaming queries or you know, something like that. What’s your take on that? Do you think that’s, is that necessary? Is that novel?

Kostas Pardalis 01:08
Yeah, it is. I mean, and prequel? Well, okay. What is like, super interesting, which Starburst dial BB is that? He and his team, like, worked on the part of the database system that didn’t want to hear bookmarks about it. There are like some technologies out there. Particularly or org file formats, right. So people are, like, gonna sit there eat as let’s say, like a salt problem, or there’s more important problems to be solved on top of that. Right. But I think what we see here is that, like every lady here, have a database system. And like any software system in general, it’s like, there’s always space there for like innovation begins. Coming out, but like with improvements labs, are important, at least for some of the use cases, right? Like we will hear from staff Ross about how like these storages format is used. A lot arounds like genetics and stuff like that. It’s very natural. It’s a way of storing the data, although it’s not something that’s like it is, as he will describe, it’s like Parquet on steroids. So it’s not just like for the Netflix, and like these kinds of use cases and this data, you can use it for other things, too. Yep. So yeah, let’s start with him. I think it’s like a unique opportunity to learn about something very fundamental and very important about working with data, which is the storages itself, the data and understand like, what’s makes a good file formats, or analytics, right. So let’s do that. Let’s talk with him.

Eric Dodds 03:22
Let’s do it. And the bonus teaser is that we got some really good insights on being a first-time founder. And the way that he’s approached leading a company coming out of academia, which I found really interesting and helpful. For all the entrepreneurs out there, definitely tune in if you want those nuggets of wisdom as well. You’ll definitely want to tune in to this show. We learned a ton about the foundational principles of databases and also some good stuff about being an entrepreneur. Subscribe if you haven’t, and we’ll catch you on the next one.