Databricks is putting more substance behind its data lakehouse model, with a new SQL Analytics service, revealed Nov. 12, that is part of the company’s Unified Data Analytics Platform.
The data lakehouse is a concept that the data science and engineering vendor has been advocating over the course of 2020 as a technical architecture that combines the best elements of data lake and data warehouse models.
The technology foundation for Databricks’ vision of the lakehouse is an open source project known as Delta Lake, which is currently hosted by The Linux Foundation. In June, Databricks expanded on Delta Lake with the launch of its Delta Engine, which adds Spark 3.0-based data queries and caching to the lakehouse.
The Databricks SQL Analytics service brings Delta Engine into the Databricks platform to help customers use the lakehouse model. The new service also integrates technologies from data visualization vendor Redash, which Databricks acquired in June.
While Databricks unveiled the SQL Analytics service today, it will be available only as a preview starting Nov. 18. The vendor said it expects general availability to follow in early 2021.
Why the data lakehouse concept works
The lakehouse concept that is at the core