Today's Big Data Pulse
Data‑Engineering Bottlenecks Shift From Legacy Tech to Leadership Gaps
Three 2026 surveys of 1,629 data professionals show that weak leadership direction and poor requirements now account for 40% of top‑bottleneck votes, outpacing legacy systems at 25%. By April, 50% of respondents cite lack of clear ownership as the biggest pain point, while better tooling is mentioned by under 5%.
Also developing:
By the numbers: Ampere Analysis acquires PlumResearch
New Pulse Survey Just Dropped: The State of Data Modeling (April 2026).
The Practical Data Community launched a new pulse survey titled "The State of Data Modeling" for April 2026. Almost nine‑in‑ten respondents indicated at least one modeling pain point, underscoring widespread challenges. The survey is brief—six questions that take roughly 90 seconds to complete—and the findings will be unveiled at a keynote in Stockholm on May 7. Readers are invited to contribute their insights via the provided Google Forms link.
Eight Data Trends Shaping 2026
The 8 Data Trends That Will Define 2026 Data is evolving fast — these eight trends highlight how organisations will collect, manage and use data in the coming years. Read more 👉 https://lnkd.in/eERGgKDP #Data #Analytics #TechTrends #BernardMarr
Teradata Launches Analyst Agent on Microsoft Marketplace for AI-Assisted Business Decision-Making
Teradata has released its enterprise‑grade Analyst Agent on Microsoft Marketplace, enabling AI‑assisted conversational analytics within Azure environments. The agent lets business and data analysts pose natural‑language questions, automatically generating complex SQL queries and visualizations without coding. Central to the offering...
Data Manipulation Techniques in esProc SPL: A Complete Guide
The article provides a comprehensive guide to data manipulation in esProc SPL, positioning it as a powerful alternative to Python for cleaning, reshaping, and merging datasets. It walks through handling missing values, outlier detection with Z‑score and IQR, duplicate removal,...
Five9 Launches Spotlight for AI Insights, Adding Custom Metrics to SaaS Analytics
Five9 announced Spotlight for AI Insights, a new layer that lets users build custom metrics and advanced analytics within its reporting suite. Powered by Genius AI, the feature aims to turn massive contact‑center data into actionable, hyper‑personalized insights for the...
Apache Arrow Enables Zero‑Copy Cross‑Language Data Sharing
Zero-copy data sharing between Python, Java, C++ without serialization overhead. That's Apache Arrow. Arrow is not a file format. It's an in-memory columnar format. https://www.ssp.sh/brain/apache-arrow
Google Cloud Pub/Sub Now Triggers LLMs on Data Streams
Yesterday, I look a look at how @GoogleCloudTech Pub/Sub now makes it easy to invoke an LLM for a data stream. https://t.co/B3CIe7Ugjl @iRomin did a better job of covering this feature in his post last week: https://t.co/VwAd4ggamI
Day 51: Build Dashboards for Visualizing Analytics Results
The post outlines how to build a real‑time analytics dashboard that consumes aggregated metrics from Kafka streams and pushes updates via WebSockets. It highlights a query‑optimization layer that combines Redis caching with PostgreSQL time‑series partitioning to keep latency sub‑second. Multi‑dimensional...
Data Foundations Crucial for Agentic AI, Infor Leads
And the data foundation gets some attention. key in the Agentic AI era. @Infor has a data lake since 2013 or so. #InforAnalystSummit https://t.co/A0nLYhi4by
LG Electronics Rolls Out End‑to‑end Smart‑factory Platform, Touts 17% Productivity Lift
LG Electronics announced an end‑to‑end smart‑factory solution that spans design, implementation and renewal, citing a 17% productivity gain at its Changwon plant and a 61% defect‑rate drop at a Tennessee facility. The move underscores the company’s push to monetize decades...
Petabyte‑Scale Breaches Sweep U.S. and Global Targets, Sparking Data Governance Alarm
In early 2026 a cascade of cyber incidents stole up to ten petabytes of data from high‑profile organizations, including a 375‑terabyte breach at Lockheed Martin and a ransomware hit on PowerSchool that exposed 60 million children. The attacks have ignited a...
Complying with Smart Energy Data Governance
Smart energy data is becoming a cornerstone for the UK’s net‑zero agenda, enabling precise billing, EV charging optimisation, and renewable grid coordination. As the data moves into real‑estate and finance sectors, governance challenges have intensified. ElectraLink, a seasoned data controller,...
Scotiabank Rolls Out 'Scotia Intelligence' AI Platform to Global Workforce
Scotiabank has launched Scotia Intelligence, a unified AI platform that equips its worldwide staff with data, governance and cloud tools. The rollout promises to shift routine tasks to AI, freeing employees for higher‑value work and accelerating the bank’s digital transformation.
Snowflake Unveils Project SnowWork, AI‑Driven Workflow Automation Platform
Snowflake announced Project SnowWork in a research preview, an autonomous AI platform that lets business users launch multi‑step workflows with conversational prompts. The launch ties Snowflake's lakehouse, AI models, and governance controls into a single execution layer, promising to shift...
CDP Market Projected to Hit $20 B by 2026 as AI and Privacy Drive Adoption
Analysts estimate the global customer data platform market will grow from about $9.7 B today to roughly $20 B by 2026. The surge is powered by AI‑enabled real‑time personalization, first‑party data strategies, and mounting privacy compliance pressures.
SE Qld Councils to Collaborate on Common Data, ID Foundations
South East Queensland’s 12 mayors released a collaborative digital plan that sets a roadmap for foundational digital infrastructure by 2035. The immediate focus is on building a common data environment, a regional digital identity system, and upgraded connectivity to enable...
Supply‑Chain Leaders Warn Data Overload Hinders Decision‑Making
Supply‑chain leaders say that the surge in data volumes has not simplified decision‑making. They cite fragmented systems, poor data governance and a lack of predictive analytics as the root causes of continued reactive operations.
DuckDB 1.5.2 Boosts Performance by 10% and Adds DuckLake Lakehouse Support
DuckDB announced version 1.5.2, a patch release that fixes bugs, improves query speed by roughly 10% on TPC‑H benchmarks, and ships a stable DuckLake v1.0 lakehouse format. The upgrade also expands Iceberg extension features and adds a Jepsen‑driven reliability test...
CloudKeeper Secures AWS AI Services Competency Amid Surge in AI-Driven Data Platforms
CloudKeeper has been awarded the Amazon Web Services AI Services Competency, a badge that validates its ability to build, scale and govern AI solutions on AWS. The designation underscores the firm’s expanding role in AI‑enabled data processing, FinOps, and its...
Boost Your Spark Jobs: How Photon Accelerates Apache Spark Performance
Databricks introduced Photon, a native C++ engine that replaces Spark’s JVM‑based runtime. By using vectorized, columnar processing and zero‑copy memory management, Photon delivers 3–7× faster query execution and 30–50% lower memory consumption. The engine integrates as a shared library, letting...
Designing AI-Assisted Integration Pipelines for Enterprise SaaS
AI‑assisted integration pipelines are emerging as a solution for connecting enterprise SaaS platforms such as Workday to downstream systems. By automating schema alignment through rule‑based logic, machine‑learning models, and large language models, these pipelines dramatically reduce manual mapping and maintenance....
Google Cloud Introduces QueryData to Help AI Agents Create Reliable Database Queries
Google Cloud unveiled QueryData, a tool that converts natural‑language prompts into database queries with claimed near‑100% accuracy. The service relies on a pre‑defined “context” that encodes schema details and deterministic instructions, which are refined using the Context Engineering Assistant in...
Endee Labs Unveils Managed Cloud Vector Database with Free Tier
Endee Labs announced Endee Cloud, a fully managed, serverless vector database with a free Starter tier and paid Pro and Scale plans. The service promises the highest throughput, recall, and lowest latency and cost per query among open‑source vector databases,...
Emphasizing Reusability When Creating Data Products with Quest Software
The DBTA webinar underscored that data product reusability is essential for AI‑ready enterprises. Experts warned that building one‑off datasets wastes millions, delays initiatives, and erodes data trust. Quest’s Ryan Crochet defined a reusable data product as valuable, trustworthy, discoverable, accessible,...
Qlik CEO: ‘Trusted Data Foundation’ For AI Is The Theme At This Week’s Connect Event
Qlik CEO Mike Capone told CRN that a trusted data foundation is essential for successful AI, especially agentic AI that automates decisions. He highlighted that 86% of AI projects miss ROI because companies skip end‑to‑end data preparation. Qlik has invested...
OpenText Launches EU Sovereign‑cloud Services on AWS and Google Cloud via S3NS Partnership
OpenText announced today that it is extending its European sovereign‑cloud portfolio with a new hybrid trusted‑cloud service on Amazon Web Services and a separate Google Cloud‑based solution built with S3NS. The moves give French and broader EU enterprises a compliance‑ready...
AI in Business Intelligence: How to Manage It Effectively
Artificial intelligence is reshaping business intelligence by extending analytics beyond descriptive reporting to predictive and prescriptive insights. Generative and agentic AI tools now automate data preparation, enable real‑time analysis, and allow natural‑language queries, making BI more accessible to non‑technical users....
Centerbase Launches AI-Powered Business Intelligence Tool That Gives Firms Citation-Backed Answers From Their Own Data
Centerbase, the practice‑management platform for midsized law firms, announced the limited release of Centerbase IQ, an AI‑powered business intelligence tool that answers firm‑specific questions using the firm’s own data and provides citation links to source documents. The solution leverages a...
A Legal Imperative for Strengthening Data Governance, Protecting Personal Information
South African companies face mounting pressure from the Protection of Personal Information Act (POPIA) to tighten data governance as digital transformation creates fragmented record‑keeping environments. Mohammed Vachiat of Konica Minolta South Africa argues that integrating digital record systems is now...
Practical Steps to Prepare Enterprise Data for Generative AI: Gartner
Enterprises are hitting data‑quality and accessibility roadblocks as they scale generative AI, with over 25% of AI leaders citing these issues as top barriers. Gartner’s 2026 survey shows that firms using automated data‑readiness assessments are 2.3 times more likely to achieve...
Apache Foundation Launches $10 Million Responsible AI Fund Backed by Anthropic
The Apache Software Foundation unveiled a multi‑year $10 M Responsible AI initiative, seeding the effort with $1.5 M from Anthropic and $250 K from Alpha‑Omega. The program will fund model access, tooling, and ecosystem support for Apache’s big‑data projects, aiming to embed ethical...
Muse Spark Reveals Century-Long Global GDP Shifts
i find muse spark is very good at data analysis—both finding relevant open-source data and analyzing it. for example, here's my results for analyzing global share of GDP over past century: https://t.co/pD4q7n7mqX https://t.co/xHcZTIgAl4
AI-Driven Compliance Accelerates as Data Governance Becomes Critical Infrastructure
AI-powered compliance tools are being woven into risk‑assessment and regulatory reporting, highlighted by the Justice Department’s $14.6 billion health‑care fraud case. Experts say speed alone isn’t enough—clarity and governance are the new priorities for legal‑tech solutions.
SEBI Deploys AI‑Powered Platforms to Boost Market Oversight and Cybersecurity
India's securities regulator SEBI rolled out three advanced IT platforms—SUPCOMS, an e‑adjudication portal, and the AI‑driven Cyber‑Sec Audit Compliance (C‑SAC) system—on April 11, 2026. The suite aims to streamline regulator‑market communication, digitize legal proceedings, and apply artificial intelligence to cybersecurity...
CDP Market Projected to Top $9.7 B by 2026, Fueling Sales Ops Innovation
Markets & Markets estimates the global customer data platform (CDP) market will grow from roughly $9.7 billion in 2023 to a substantially larger size by 2026. The forecast underscores how unified first‑party data is becoming a cornerstone for sales, revenue operations,...
Egen Deploys AI‑Driven Opioid Dashboard in Alameda County with $1.2M Grant
Pleasanton‑based software firm Egen has rolled out an AI‑driven opioid‑crisis dashboard for Alameda County, backed by a $1.2 million federal grant. The platform fuses EMS, pharmacy and demographic data to predict overdose hotspots, shifting public‑health response from reactive to proactive.
Why Data Quality Matters when Working with Data at Scale
Data quality is often relegated to a post‑deployment cleanup, leading to costly fixes and eroded trust when pipelines drift from their original contracts. The article outlines how typical data projects move from cross‑functional planning to staging validation, yet assume the...
China Opens First Fully AI-Driven Hospital, Pioneering Integrated Care
China unveiled its first fully AI-driven hospital on April 11, 2026, positioning the nation at the forefront of integrated, predictive health care. The facility links diagnosis, treatment and long‑term management through a unified AI platform, promising higher accuracy and lower...
Dune Launches Dbt Connector to Pipe On‑chain Data Straight Into Snowflake and BigQuery
Dune announced a dbt Connector that exports its on‑chain data catalog directly to Snowflake and BigQuery, letting data teams use familiar dbt workflows without building new infrastructure. The move targets institutional investors and DeFi analysts seeking faster, more reliable blockchain...
Congress Grapples with Divergent AI Bills Targeting Large Language Models
Lawmakers are advancing rival AI bills that could reshape how large language models are trained and deployed. Republican proposals focus on data ownership and Energy Department oversight, while Democratic measures aim at curbing deepfakes and protecting minors. The clash pits...
Databricks‑Microsoft Alliance Underscores Data Platform’s Critical Role
Databricks and Microsoft are moving together right now. The data platform race is not slowing. It's compressing. The model is the DJ. The data platform is the venue. Nobody remembers the DJ when the sound system fails. https://t.co/LgnMfkCvrj
Swiss Stock Exchange SIX, Snowflake Partner to Simplify Access to Financial Data
Switzerland’s SIX stock exchange has teamed up with Snowflake to deliver its regulatory, reference and pricing data directly within Snowflake’s AI Data Cloud. The integration uses Snowflake’s zero‑copy data sharing, letting clients query SIX data without moving or duplicating it....
Amazon Web Services Commits $13 B to Expand Data Centers in Mississippi
Amazon Web Services unveiled a $13 billion expansion of its data‑center footprint in central Mississippi, creating 700 new jobs and bringing the state's total planned AWS investment to $25 billion. The move is positioned as a catalyst for the region’s emerging “Digital...
Google Chooses Intel Xeon 6 CPUs for AI Data Centers, Deepening Decades‑Long Partnership
Google announced a multi‑generation commitment to Intel’s Xeon 6 CPUs for AI training and inference workloads, extending a partnership that began nearly 30 years ago. The move comes as AI agents push CPU‑to‑GPU ratios toward 1:1, creating a quiet supply crunch,...
Legal Analytics Market Projected to Triple by 2033, Forecast Shows $29.75B Valuation
A new market research report projects the global legal analytics market to expand from $10.65 billion in 2025 to $29.75 billion by 2033, a compound annual growth rate of 13.7%. The growth is attributed to rising AI adoption, increased demand for data‑driven...
EY Deploys AI Across Global Assurance, Targeting 2028 End‑to‑End Audits
EY has rolled out a multi‑agent AI system across its global Assurance business, embedding the technology in the EY Canvas platform used by 130,000 professionals in 160,000 audit engagements. The deployment, built on Microsoft Azure, Foundry and Fabric, aims to...
Microsoft Fabric Community Launches First Data Factory & Integration Contest
The Microsoft Fabric community announced a new contest that challenges teams to build end‑to‑end, AI‑ready analytics using Fabric Data Factory, dbt, and Power BI. Opening on April 14 with an extended deadline, the competition aims to codify a repeatable medallion...
Google Rebrands Looker Studio Back to Data Studio, Adds Pro Tier
🤔 Google has rebranded Looker Studio to ... Data Studio (again)! "Users need a single place to curate and analyze their data from the many different sources that impact their business each day... We are sharing the next...
Snowflake's 'Spider‑Man' Theory Pushes Open Standards for AI Data Access
Snowflake’s director of product management James Rowland‑Jones told The Register that the company’s new “Spider‑Man” theory places responsibility on AI agents accessing data, while championing open standards like Apache Iceberg. The strategy seeks to lower token costs, improve AI performance,...
Persistent Deploys AI‑Driven Merchant Fraud Tool on Databricks, Aiming for Up to 40% Loss Reduction
Persistent has introduced a Merchant Risk Management and Fraud Detection platform built on Databricks, targeting banks, acquirers and payment service providers. The solution claims to lower chargeback and fraud losses by 20%‑40% and cut manual review work by up to...