Stop Moving Data. Start Using It.

Starburst CEO Justin Borgman argues that enterprise AI depends on broad, timely access to organizational context, which is dispersed across databases, SaaS platforms, data warehouses, lakehouses, and institutional knowledge rather than residing in one location. He contrasts the traditional approach of centralizing data through repeated copying and migration, which he characterizes as costly, slow, restrictive, and prone to vendor lock-in, with data federation, which allows organizations to query data where it remains. The piece contends that recent improvements in federation performance make it a viable alternative to centralization and especially important for AI systems that require current, governed business context to operate effectively. It presents Starburst as a context layer for AI, emphasizing four requirements: federated data access, semantic alignment through curated data products, ongoing adaptation as data and business meaning change, and an Iceberg-centered lakehouse strategy for new data while retaining access to legacy sources.

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