Dave Mariani, founder and CTO of AtScale, discusses the evolution of the modern data stack and its impact on organizational capability and analytics maturity with a focus on the role of the semantic layer in capturing value from data infrastructure investments.

This first of a kind panel discussion will feature founder-executives from five different companies working in and around the semantic layer. The group will explore the origins of the semantic layer and discuss how the concept has evolved to become a critical component of the modern data stack.

Zhamak Dehghani founded the concept of Data Mesh in 2018 and has since been a leading evangelist for the approach. This fireside chat with Zhamak moderated by AtScale Product Leader, Elif Tutuk, will take a holistic look at the concept of Data Mesh and the strategies (technology and organizational) for pursuing. The will explore how the concept of a semantic layer platform fits (or doesn’t fit) into the Data Mesh model and more broadly how it might support decentralized, domain oriented, analytics innovation.

This panel of data leaders will look at the semantic layer from the perspective of those that have implemented and operated a semantic layer technology approach. The group will discuss key organizational drivers for adopting, where they are in their journey, and the different approaches pursued.

This panel of thought leaders will discuss cutting edge topics on data product innovation including: How semantic layers or metrics layers support data product innovation, Decentralizing data product innovation, Defining Data Product SLAs, and the role of Data Contracts in scaling a data and analytics program.

One of the primary barriers to delivering more value from data science has been getting actionable AI-generated insights to business users. Leveraging BI infrastructure to disseminate analytics augmented with data science is an enormous opportunity to realize the potential, organizations must break down the many silos separating the two teams.

Data and analytics governance can be enormously empowering to self service initiatives. Creating the right guardrails without impacting agility is key. This conversation will focus on strategies for implementing governance in a way that supports self service and data product innovation.

Predictive Analytics, Prescriptive Analytics, Real time inference data and model explainability, Natural Language Analytics. We are in a time of rapid innovation in the analytics space. This panel of experts will discuss some of the hottest topics and offer opinions on what’s hype and what’s for real.

Lessons from application design show that responsiveness plays a critical role in user experience. Maintaining query performance is equally critical for delivering an analytics user experience that supports decision making. As the size of data grows, it is increasingly difficult to maintain performance while maintaining links to source data assets. This talk will look at modern query acceleration and discuss strategies for overcoming the laws of physics in delivering performant analytics on Petabyte scale data located thousands of miles away.

This group of data leaders will offer perspectives on the topic of data literacy in an age of AI/ML-augmented analytics. They will explore how the semantic layer enables organizations to capture value by both leveraging more sophisticated augmented analytics while making it easier to interact with data.

Data culture is about the beliefs and behaviors that define how an organization ingrains data-driven decision making into their day to day activities. This panel of data leaders will discuss important questions including: How do you nurture a data-driven culture in your organization? How has adoption of AI/ML impacted data culture. How has the modern data stack impacted the skill sets and personas needed to support data culture?

Predictive Analytics, Prescriptive Analytics, The discipline of Finops is being employed by modern cloud-first organizations to take a holistic view of value creation by establishing partnerships between technology, finance, and business teams that encourage innovation while managing costs. The semantic layer has an advantageous position in the modern data stack to bring visibility and control to analytics programs. This panel will discuss this emerging discipline with an eye toward technology architectures that support data-driven management of cloud analytics costs.

AtScale founder and CTO Dave Mariani will sit down with Bill Inmon, recognized by many as the father of the data warehouse, to discuss the evolution of modern cloud data platforms and try to dissect the origins of the conflict between differing data architectures. As data and analytics concepts like semantic layer, data mesh, and data fabric evolve within the modern data stack ecosystem, the lines are increasingly blurred between the pros and cons of the different data infrastructure approaches. Bill will share his unscripted commentary on the cloud holy war and will work with Dave to bring about lasting peace within the data and analytics galaxy.