Snowflake

A New Era for Open Data Formats Snowflake has announced the general availability of Snowflake Storage for Apache Iceberg on both AWS and Azure, marking a significant shift in how enterprises can build open, interoperable data lakehouses. This development combines Snowflake’s enterprise reliability and governance capabilities with the flexibility and openness of Apache Iceberg, one of the most promising open table formats in the data ecosystem. For a deeper look at Iceberg itself, see Apache Iceberg in 2026, and for where this sits in the broader platform picture see The modern lakehouse stack. ...

The views in this post are my own personal reflections on the data industry, written in my own time. They are not about any specific employer, team, or colleague, past or present, and do not draw on any non-public information. In 2026, the technical gap between Databricks and Snowflake has narrowed to a sliver. Both offer world-class serverless compute, both support Iceberg/Delta as first-class citizens, and both have integrated AI agents that can write SQL better than your average intern. ...

The views in this post are my own personal reflections on the data industry, written in my own time. They are not about any specific employer, team, or colleague, past or present, and do not draw on any non-public information. The question “Databricks or Snowflake?” has dominated data engineering conversations for the past five years. In 2026, it’s still the wrong question. But let me answer it anyway, because sometimes you have to pick one. For the wider stack this choice sits inside, see The modern lakehouse stack. ...

How to Use This Guide This curated list covers courses from beginner to advanced levels across multiple platforms. Choose based on: Your role: Data Engineer, Data Analyst, or Data Scientist Learning style: Self-paced courses, specializations, or nanodegrees Timeline: Single courses (weeks) vs. comprehensive programs (months) Hands-on practice: Most include projects and real-world scenarios Cloud platform: AWS, GCP, Azure, or multi-cloud approaches Data Engineering Professional Certificates (Industry-Backed) Best for: Structured learning with recognized credentials ...