November 2022 Summaries

Orchard Analytics is an analytics consultancy that helps high-growth companies build their data infrastructure and serves as their part-time data team. The company, based in New York, has worked with Square, Thinx, and Care/of on various aspects of data management. Co-founders Roland Cassirer and Ryan Brennan have experienced numerous instances where clients' dashboards appeared broken before important meetings, leading to a loss of trust in the underlying data and Orchard Analytics' services. To address this issue, Orchard Analytics has started using Metaplane, a data observability platform that alerts them to emerging data quality issues in real-time, allowing for proactive resolution of problems before they impact business operations. This has helped build trust with clients and opened up opportunities for higher-value projects.

The text discusses updates to the web application, which now displays the number of open incidents on schemas, tables, and columns. It also mentions various topics such as data quality, data observability, user interface vs code, and a comparison between Snowflake and ClickHouse. Additionally, it announces Metaplane's fundraise and introduces end-to-end column-level lineage visualization.

Metaplane provides usage hints on schemas, tables, and columns to help users understand the most frequently used parts of their data warehouse. These hints can be useful for identifying areas where additional tests may be needed. The text also mentions various topics such as data quality, data observability, user interface vs code, and introduces new features like end-to-end column-level lineage visualization. Additionally, it announces Metaplane's recent fundraise and a team retreat in an unspecified location.

Schema changes can impact various stakeholders within an organization, and managing these changes effectively is crucial. While sending all schema change notifications to a single Slack channel may seem like a solution, it often leads to unread or ignored messages due to the volume of information. A better approach is to create fine-grained schema change alerting rules per Slack channel and database. Metaplane now offers this functionality, allowing users to tailor notifications to specific channels where stakeholders are already engaged.

Five Talks on Organizations and Teams in Data from Coalesce 2022 covered various aspects of building data teams, including the first hire, keeping up with changing roles, and taking care of team members. The talks emphasized the importance of adapting to a rapidly changing industry while transitioning to remote work models. Key takeaways included the need for smart software purchases, fostering a people-first approach in leadership, creating an intentional space for community building, and understanding that data is only as good as its context. The talks highlighted the importance of focusing on both the technical aspects of data teams and the human element to ensure success.

Metaplane has made it simpler to connect Snowflake databases by auto generating SQL, reducing the setup process to mere minutes. The company is also announcing its recent fundraise and introducing end-to-end column-level lineage visualization. Additionally, they have completed a team retreat in an unspecified location.

PagerDuty now supports data incidents, allowing users to receive notifications for groups of related alerting monitors instead of individual alerts. This feature aims to improve the user experience by reducing redundant notifications and streamlining incident management processes.