Alex Merced — Developer and technical writer sharing in-depth insights on data engineering, Apache Iceberg, data lakehouse architectures, Python tooling, and modern analytics platforms, with a strong focus on practical, hands-on learning.
501 articles from this blog
Explores zero-ETL federation as a real-time data access method for AI agents, replacing batch ETL to enable live cross-enterprise analytics.
Explores how agentic AI auto-heals and protects enterprise data pipelines by replacing static alerts with autonomous monitoring and recovery.
Best practices for managing Apache Iceberg snapshot expiration in data lakehouses to optimize query performance and metadata size.
Explains how Apache Iceberg enables hybrid-cloud analytics for regulated markets by separating storage, compute, and catalog.
Guide to securing Apache Iceberg tables with row/column-level access control using Apache Polaris and query engine policies.
A step-by-step playbook for migrating from legacy data warehouses to open lakehouses, covering inventory, architecture, and trust-building.
Explains designing an open catalog architecture for AI agents in an agentic lakehouse, covering Apache Polaris and Dremio's Open Catalog.
Tutorial on building a custom agentic analytics system using Python, LangChain, and Dremio SQL data lakes for automated SQL investigation.
Guide to using Hermes Agent for free with DeepSeek V4 and Slack integration, enabling a zero-cost AI coding assistant.
A guide on automating Iceberg table maintenance to prevent small file accumulation, covering compaction, vacuuming, and modern tools.
Comparison of Iceberg catalog control planes: Polaris, Unity Catalog, and Cloud REST for lakehouse architecture.
Explores building modular query engines using Rust runtimes like Apache DataFusion, focusing on composability over monolithic designs.
A practical analysis of data mesh implementation, covering what works and what doesn't after years of production use.
Explores using DuckDB and Polars to query and write to Iceberg tables, covering new features, workflows, and practical patterns.
Apache Kafka 4.0 removes ZooKeeper, introduces KRaft mode, new consumer rebalance protocol, and queues for Kafka, impacting platform operations.
Explains how Apache Iceberg V3 improves CDC pipelines with deletion vectors and row lineage, solving delete file accumulation.
Explores how dbt Fusion, a Rust-based rewrite of dbt Core, transforms analytics engineering by treating SQL as first-class code with AST parsing and static analysis.
Explains how to use the FOCUS 1.3 open billing standard for FinOps on data warehouses, enabling cost attribution and optimization across providers.
Explains how to design governed RAG systems using data products, separating retrieval and governance for accurate, policy-compliant AI responses.
Explores data clean rooms for privacy-preserving analytics, covering core guarantees, platforms like Databricks and AWS, and real-world use cases.
