Everything I knew about enterprise data warehousing is now failing me

Isaac Obezo, a Staff Data Engineer at Starburst, discusses the limitations of traditional enterprise data warehouses (EDWs) and advocates for a decentralized approach to data management. He highlights several challenges of EDWs, including unpredictable costs, data complexity, and access control issues, which arise from the centralized nature of these systems. Obezo argues that centralizing data is increasingly unrealistic due to the diverse and decentralized nature of modern data sources, leading to inefficiencies and hidden costs. He emphasizes that a decentralized model, as exemplified by Starburst's federated approach, offers a more flexible and cost-effective solution. This model allows data to remain in its original locations, leveraging an abstraction layer to unify disparate data sources without the need for extensive pipeline development. This approach not only reduces costs by decoupling storage from compute but also democratizes data access, enabling users to efficiently retrieve and analyze data without being constrained by centralized architectures. Through Starburst, organizations can embrace the complexity of modern data ecosystems, enhancing data accessibility, compliance, and business insights while moving beyond the limitations of traditional data warehousing.