Durable models on variable compute.
Practitioner writing on data engineering, AI infrastructure, and the systems that make intelligence work at scale.
The decisions, incidents and numbers behind platforms that shipped, and help for teams that want the same experience applied to theirs.
Three layers, read top to bottom
The mark is the map. AI sits on top, the durable models in the middle, and the data everything depends on at the base. Every piece belongs to one of them.
AI
Agents and the governance that keeps them affordable and safe.
- Agents for data workComing soon
- AI governance & FinOpsComing soon
Models
The durable layer: semantic definitions, open tables and catalogs.
- Semantic layer & ontology2 pieces
- Lakehouse & IcebergComing soon
Data
Pipelines, change data capture and the foundations under everything.
- Real-time & pipelines2 pieces
- Foundations1 piece
Latest from the Chronicles
All writingThe quietest process in Airflow: what the triggerer did for 200 parallel Dataproc jobs
How Airflow's triggerer and deferrable operators let a single scheduler supervise 200 concurrent Dataproc jobs without burning worker slots.
Connecting Atlan to Snowflake's ontology: tags, lineage and semantic views across the boundary
Keeping tags, lineage and semantic views consistent when governance lives in Atlan and the definitions live in Snowflake.
The semantic layer: semantic views, dbt metrics and business definitions
Where business definitions should live, and how Snowflake semantic views and dbt metrics divide the work.
Data & Engineering Innovators Spotlight: Ved Prakash
An interview with Artie on real-time CDC with Project Siphon, proactive cost governance for Snowflake Cortex, and where AI will change data engineering next.
How a Gen AI model reaches production
From raw data to millions of conversations. Seven stages, from data collection and pre-training through alignment, evaluation, infrastructure, deployment and monitoring.
Measured in production, not on slides
Results from platforms I designed and run at GitLab. The same thinking goes into every engagement.
See how we can work together- 100%
- of database changes captured by Project Siphon, closing a 30–40% gap
- $100K+
- a month in potential AI overruns prevented by Cortex governance
- 62%
- pipeline runtime reduction, 1,456 compute hours saved a year
- 100 TB+
- migrated from on-premise Kognitio to Snowflake on AWS
On stage
All talksJune 2026, Snowflake Summit 2026, San Francisco
How GitLab saved 90% in engineering costs by keeping AI inside Snowflake
With Radovan Baćović
June 2026, Snowflake Summit 2026, San Francisco
Beyond passwords: strong authentication for Snowflake workloads
October 2025, DSC DACH
Talk to your data: natural language analytics with Snowflake Cortex
Have a platform question that will not wait for the next post?
Tell me what you are building, what it runs on and where it hurts.
Email hello@dataaichronicles.com