Recap of the First Apache DataFusion Meetup in Europe: Belgrade 2024

You can find the full version of the recap on github

On September 27, 2024, the first Apache DataFusion Meetup in Europe was held in Belgrade, gathering nearly 70 attendees. Andrew Lamb came up with the idea of a DataFusion event in Europe and Marko Grujic from EDB took the helm and coordinated a smooth and successful meetup. The Microsoft office provided a great venue, and EDB handled the catering, making it a memorable event. The talks covered various aspects of DataFusion, with key contributions from the following speakers:

View from Microsoft Belgrade office

Andrew Lamb: Introduction to DataFusion’s architecture and its goals.‍

Artjoms Iskovs: Caching optimization using DataFusion in EDB.‍

Mehmet Ozan Kabak: Tackling the Data Chasm with DataFusion.‍

Marko Grujic: Database replication using the FDAP stack for scalable replication.‍

Nick Karlov: Managing large datasets with Tarantool, including handling 70TB in RAM.‍

Piotr Findeisen: Comparison of types in Apache Arrow vs DataFusion.

Andrew Lamb / Artjoms Iskovs / Mehmet Ozan Kabak

Marko Grujic / Nick Karlov / Piotr Findeisen

In this event our CEO Mehmet Ozan Kabak spoke about the challenges of building data-intensive applications, referring to the Data Chasm—a complex landscape with many moving parts that makes it difficult to manage data efficiently. He explained how DataFusion helps break down these barriers, allowing for a more streamlined approach to data processing. Ozan highlighted Synnada's contributions to the DataFusion project, including their work on a unified data processing, which builds on top of DataFusion to simplify data workflows.

Special thanks to Marko Grujic for organizing the event and to Microsoft Belgrade for providing the venue. We also want to thank our amazing speakers: Andrew Lamb, Artjoms Iskovs, Mehmet Ozan Kabak, Marko Grujic, Nick Karlov, and Piotr Findeisen for their valuable contributions.