Scale By The Bay 2019: Russell Spitzer Interview

[Music] I'm Russell Spitzer I work at a company I'm Russell Spitzer I work at a company called data stacks and I'm a software called data stacks and I'm a software engineer and the most of the time I work engineer and the most of the time I work on something called a spark Sandra on something called a spark Sandra connector which is the integration connector which is the integration between Apache spark and Apache between Apache spark and Apache Cassandra [Music] [Music] yeah this is I think my third or fourth yeah this is I think my third or fourth scale by the bay I mean it was Scala by scale by the bay I mean it was Scala by the bay a long time ago I first heard the bay a long time ago I first heard about it because I was going to a lot of about it because I was going to a lot of the meetups that were being hosted by the meetups that were being hosted by Alexa and we also then learned that we Alexa and we also then learned that we actually live pretty close together and actually live pretty close together and I have you know just been attending I have you know just been attending meetups and going to scale by the bay meetups and going to scale by the bay ever since you know so I always think ever since you know so I always think it's one of my favorite conferences to it's one of my favorite conferences to go to because a lot of people I know go go to because a lot of people I know go to this conference and you really hear to this conference and you really hear the the kind of cutting edge of what's the the kind of cutting edge of what's happening in the industry my favorite happening in the industry my favorite part about my talk is it's it's really part about my talk is it's it's really about weighing the costs and benefits of about weighing the costs and benefits of something before you fully dive into it something before you fully dive into it and put all your you know your eggs in and put all your you know your eggs in that basket so in particular my talks that basket so in particular my talks about whether or not SPARC is a good about whether or not SPARC is a good addition to your stack especially if addition to your stack especially if Cassandra is already part of it and I Cassandra is already part of it and I like to talk about the the primary costs like to talk about the the primary costs and benefits that you can get from and benefits that you can get from including SPARC so one thing that people including SPARC so one thing that people don't like to think about sometimes don't like to think about sometimes because it's fun to get the new toy and because it's fun to get the new toy and get it involved as quickly as you can is get it involved as quickly as you can is there might be alternative solutions to there might be alternative solutions to the same problems that are cheaper to the same problems that are cheaper to maintain easier to build and easier to maintain easier to build and easier to work with yeah so since I work on the integration yeah so since I work on the integration between spark and Cassandra and we're between spark and Cassandra and we're really a business-to-business sort of really a business-to-business sort of organization what I do is basically try organization what I do is basically try to broaden the market of people who can to broaden the market of people who can work with Cassandra because all by work with Cassandra because all by itself Cassandra is an amazing OLTP itself Cassandra is an amazing OLTP database distributed it's got a lot of database distributed it's got a lot of fault tolerance and resilience but it fault tolerance and resilience but it doesn't have the analytics tools that a doesn't have the analytics tools that a lot of people required to do other lot of people required to do other things with their data so I like being things with their data so I like being able to help broaden that that market able to help broaden that that market allow people who never thought they allow people who never thought they could do a certain thing with their could do a certain thing with their Cassandra data suddenly get open to a Cassandra data suddenly get open to a whole new world of all the possibilities whole new world of all the possibilities that spark allows [Music] [Music] so one of the talks that I really so one of the talks that I really enjoyed today's I learned a lot about enjoyed today's I learned a lot about Scala bridge there was a talk on how to Scala bridge there was a talk on how to enhance diversity and strengthen the enhance diversity and strengthen the Scala community and one thing that I Scala community and one thing that I always feel like I need to be doing always feel like I need to be doing better at is finding more folks who are better at is finding more folks who are just entering into programming and just entering into programming and helping them get a better understanding helping them get a better understanding of what the industry actually looks like of what the industry actually looks like and what it's like to be a programmer and what it's like to be a programmer and building those initial skills and and building those initial skills and confidence so that they can hopefully confidence so that they can hopefully someday be speaking at a conference just someday be speaking at a conference just like this like this [Music] [Music] so professionally a thing I'm most so professionally a thing I'm most excited about is this is a little excited about is this is a little technically deep and probably doesn't technically deep and probably doesn't have a lot of relevance to a lot of have a lot of relevance to a lot of people but spark is coming out with the people but spark is coming out with the new API called datastore data source v2 new API called datastore data source v2 and data source v2 really enables end and data source v2 really enables end databases or systems connecting to spark databases or systems connecting to spark a much greater range of capability these a much greater range of capability these sorts of things that you can start doing sorts of things that you can start doing while communicating with spark are being while communicating with spark are being greatly expanded the interactions greatly expanded the interactions between catalogs and other databases and between catalogs and other databases and sparks on catalogue are becoming sparks on catalogue are becoming pluggable there are budget and there are pluggable there are budget and there are a lot of differences in how spark a lot of differences in how spark recognizes the partitioning and recognizes the partitioning and clustering of external data sources as clustering of external data sources as well as better integration for streaming well as better integration for streaming and things like that so I'm really and things like that so I'm really excited that that's about to become full excited that that's about to become full mainstream and I'm excited to be working mainstream and I'm excited to be working on our own connector that's going to on our own connector that's going to utilize that new API I mean my favorite utilize that new API I mean my favorite part about scale by the bay is really part about scale by the bay is really all of the super intelligent welcoming all of the super intelligent welcoming people who are here I mean when you when people who are here I mean when you when you're at this conference it always you're at this conference it always feels like you can ask a question of feels like you can ask a question of anybody and suddenly learn a whole lot anybody and suddenly learn a whole lot of new things or if you're confused of new things or if you're confused about something in the industry a new about something in the industry a new trend or something like that everyone is trend or something like that everyone is always ready to talk and explain why always ready to talk and explain why something is important now or why they something is important now or why they don't think something is important so don't think something is important so it's it's a great place to come and it's it's a great place to come and learn about things that aren't widely learn about things that aren't widely talked about so I really appreciate that talked about so I really appreciate that about it and I do wish the conference about it and I do wish the conference was closer I live in New Orleans now so was closer I live in New Orleans now so what I would like is should be hosted in what I would like is should be hosted in New Orleans but outside of that I really New Orleans but outside of that I really enjoy coming to the conference enjoy coming to the conference [Music]