How datavloot came about

01The gilded data cage

Since 2015 I have helped organisations in healthcare, government and retail turn their data into knowledge, insight and innovation. I design and build the data platforms (formerly data warehouses) and data products for that, such as semantic models and visual dashboards.

I always did this entirely within the Microsoft ecosystem. SQL Server, Reporting Services, Analysis Services on premise, and later in the cloud: Azure, Fabric, Databricks, Power BI and so on. I spent my training budget and my study time on sharpening and certifying my Microsoft skills — which did earn me a few fine titles: Microsoft Certified Solution Associate, Azure Data Engineer Associate and Fabric Data Engineer Associate.

Last November I took a consultancy assignment as data solution architect at the RCE, part of the Dutch Ministry of Education, Culture and Science. With ever stricter rules on the use of (American) cloud services [1], Microsoft was not the desired answer. My Microsoft certificates turned out to be worth rather less all of a sudden…

02A look under that shiny American bonnet

I discovered a new data world outside the American hyperscalers (Microsoft, Google and Amazon): that of open-source technology. It became a challenging — and above all enjoyable — voyage of discovery into which technologies actually sit under that shiny American bonnet, and how we can integrate them ourselves into a coherent whole. That gave us a grip on both the technology and the data, and let the organisation choose for itself where to store its data, sovereignly.

Those experiences, and a growing awareness of our one-sided dependence on American SaaS products in general, were two reasons for me to take the helm myself — and to turn it. Datavloot was born.

03Datavloot, an open-source data & AI platform

The promise of datavloot:

Datavloot brings together technology, knowledge and specialists around data, to contribute at a fundamental level to open, sovereign and scalable data platforms.

Datavloot does this by:

• building modern, durable and secure open-source data platforms together;
• offering a knowledge and training platform around open-source data technologies;
• running workshops and training on building open-source data solutions.

The double fleet metaphor. The fleet — a coordinated group of sailing ships — stands for making interchangeable open-source tools available as one coherent data platform. The fleet is also a metaphor for the invitation to data specialists: to learn from a position of autonomy, and to contribute to the shared mission of datavloot.

04Time for a new course together — will you sail along?

Datavloot is an adventure that has only just begun, and one we are taking on together. You will find the broad course on the roadmap, so you know where we are headed and what to expect.

There are several ways to sail along with datavloot:

• Request a demo — let us look together at whether datavloot suits your organisation (book a demo).
• Learn step by step — follow the free online workshop and build your first data platform (the Optimist) one step at a time. Leave your email at the shipyard to be kept posted, or keep an eye on us on LinkedIn or datavloot.nl.
• Help build — contribute to the various open-source data platforms of datavloot (github.com/datavloot/datavloot-toolkit).

Will you sail along?