Kir Titievsky, Product Manager at Google Cloud with extensive experience in streaming and storage infrastructure, joined Yuliia and Dumky to talk about streaming. Drawing from his work with Apache Kafka, Cloud PubSub, Dataflow and Cloud Storage since 2015, Kir explains the fundamental differences between streaming and micro-batch processing. He challenges common misconceptions about streaming costs, explaining how streaming can be significantly less expensive than batch processing for many use cases. Kir shares insights on the "service bus architecture" revival, discussing how modern distributed messaging systems have solved historic bottlenecks while creating new opportunities for business and performance needs.

Kir's medium - https://medium.com/@kir-gcp
Kir's Linkedin page - https://www.linkedin.com/in/kir-titievsky-%F0%9F%87%BA%F0%9F%87%A6-7775052/

Kir Tititevsky: Modern Streaming Architecture Transforming the Service Bus

Serhii Sokolenko, founder at Tower Dev [https://tower.dev/] and former product manager at tech giants like Google Cloud, Snowflake, and Databricks, joined Yuliia to discuss his journey building a next-generation compute platform. Tower Dev aims to simplify data processing for data engineers who work with Python. Serhii explains how Tower addresses three key market trends: the integration of data engineering with AI through Python, the movement away from complex distributed processing frameworks, and users' desire for flexibility across different data platforms. He explains how Tower makes Python data applications more accessible by eliminating the need to learn complex frameworks while automatically scaling infrastructure. Sergei also shares his perspective on the future of data engineering, noting in which ways AI will transform the profession.

Tower Dev - https://tower.dev/
Serhii's Linkedin - https://www.linkedin.com/in/ssokolenko/

Serhii Sokolenko: Building a Python-First Compute Platform for Data Engineers

Andrii Yasinetsky, CTO and co-founder of Diadia Health and AI expert, joined Yuliia to share his perspective on the current AI landscape and its future implications. Currently Andrii and his team are building an AI-first healthcare platform focused on metabolic and hormonal health. Andrii talks about how AI is changing both technology stacks and business economics. We discuss what's wrong with AI claims in enterprises and why it doesn't match reality, he points out the decreasing cost of intelligence, and why the middle layer of tech jobs may disappear within five years. Andrii also shares his take on how the recent US administration change has created a "timeline split" that could dramatically accelerate AI innovation, potentially transforming the global economy.

Diadia Health - https://diadiahealth.com [https://diadiahealth.com/]

Andrii's Linkedin - https://www.linkedin.com/in/yasinetsky/



Andrii Yasinetsky: Building an AI Startup & Reshaping Healthcare, AI Democratization and Changes It Brings to Tech Jobs and World Economy

Jess Kyle, a Data Engineering Leader with 13 years of experience across startups and enterprises, joined Yuliia to share her mission of making data work more enjoyable for everyone involved. As a leader of a data engineering team at a sports betting company, Jess shared how transparent communication can transform team dynamics and stakeholder relationships. In her work she challenges the common notion of "soft skills" in data, emphasizing that communication is a hard skill that should be screened for in interviews. Jess provides practical insights on managing overwhelm, delivering difficult feedback, and emphasizes why empathy and humility are the two most crucial qualities for data leaders - even though they're often undervalued in the tech industry.

Jess's linkedin page - linkedin.com/in/jesskyle [https://www.linkedin.com/in/jesskyle]

Jess Kyle: How Communication, Empathy, and Trust Transform Data Work

Deepti Srivastava, Founder of Snow Leopard AI and former Spanner Product Lead at Google Cloud, joined Yuliia to chat what's wrong with current approaches to AI integration. Deepti introduces a paradigm shift away from ETL pipelines towards federated, real-time data access for AI applications. She explains how Snow Leopard's intelligent data retrieval platform enables enterprises to connect AI systems directly to operational data sources without compromising security or freshness. Through practical examples Deepti explains why conventional RAG approaches with vector stores are not good enough for business-critical AI applications, and how a systems thinking approach to AI infrastructure can unlock greater value while reducing unnecessary data movement.

Deepti's linkedin [https://www.linkedin.com/in/thedeepti/]- https://www.linkedin.com/in/thedeepti/
Snowleopard.ai [http://snowleopard.ai/] - http://snowleopard.ai/


Deepti Srivastava: Systems Thinking for Enterprise AI

Bogdan Banu, Data Engineering Manager at Veed.io, joined Yuliia to share his journey of building a data platform from scratch at a fast-growing startup. As Veed's first data hire, Bogdan discusses how he established a modern data stack while maintaining strong governance principles and cost consciousness. Bogdan covered insights on implementing consent-based video data processing for AI initiatives, approaches to data democratization, and how his data team balancs velocity with security. Bogdan shared his perspectives on making strategic vendor choices, measuring business value, and fostering a culture of intelligent experimentation in startup environments.

Bogdan's Linkedin - https://www.linkedin.com/in/bogdan-banu-a68a237/

Bogdan Banu: From Zero to Data Platform in Startup

Jason Touleyrou, Data Engineering Manager at Corewell Health joined Yuliia to discuss why most organizations struggle with data governance. He argues that data teams should focus on building trust through flexible systems rather than rigid controls. Challenging traditional data quality approaches, Jason suggests starting with basic freshness checks and evolving governance gradually. Drawing from his experience across healthcare and marketing analytics, he shares practical strategies for implementing governance during migrations and measuring data team value beyond conventional metrics.

Jason's linkedin page - https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasontouleyrou/

Jason Touleyrou: How to Make Data Governance Work in Organizations

Richard He, Founder at Fundamenta – Data Consultancy, former Engineering Director at Virgin Media O2  and creator of Practical GCP YouTube channel, joined Yuliia to discuss the critical concept of "cost of inaction" in data infrastructure modernization. Based on his two decades of experience, including several successful migrations, Richard emphasized the importance of proactive platform evolution over reactive large-scale migrations. He shared valuable insights on measuring ROI for platform teams, and bridging the gap between technical execution and business strategy.

Richard's Linkedin - https://www.linkedin.com/in/shenghuahe/


Richard He: The Cost of Inaction for Data Teams and Data Platforms

Paolo Platter, CTO and co-founder of Agile Lab and Witboost, joined Yuliia to share how his 10 years of building custom data solutions for clients led to creating Witboost - a platform that helps big companies manage their data products at scale. One of their customers used Witboost to build over 250 data products in just 18 months, showing how well the platform works at scale. Paolo explained why setting rules for data teams becomes harder as companies grow, and shared how he shifted from saying "yes" to every client request as a consultant to building a product that works for many companies.

Paolo Platter - https://www.linkedin.com/in/paoloplatter/

Paolo Platter: From 10 Years of Data Consulting to Creating Witboost - A Platform that Scales Enterprise Data Products

Amy Raygada, data consultant and founder of Cosmodata, recently joined the Thoughtworks team. Together with Yuliia, she unpacks what it’s like to work as a data consultant in today’s world, where AI challenges every organization. Amy shared her journey from individual contributor to consultant, offering insights on navigating organizational silos, the similarities between being an individual contributor and a consultant, and how to advise big organizations while making a meaningful impact.

Amy Raygada linkedin - https://www.linkedin.com/in/amy-raygada/

Amy Raygada: Data Consultancy in 2024: Navigating AI Hype, Org Silos, and Drive an Impact

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