Introduction to Databricks

Databricks is one of the most recognizable names in the big data industry. They are the providers of the lakehouse platform for data analytics and artificial intelligence (AI). This book is about Databricks SQL, a product within the Databricks Lakehouse platform that powers data analytics and business intelligence.

Databricks SQL is a rapidly evolving product. It is not a traditional data warehouse, yet its users are the traditional data warehouse and business intelligence users. It claims to provide all the functionality of data warehouses on what is essentially a data lake. This concept can be a bit jarring. It can create resistance in adoption as you might be wondering if your skills are transferrable, or if your work might be disrupted as a result of a new learning curve.

Hence, I am writing this book.

The primary intent of this book is to help you learn the fundamental concepts of Databricks SQL in a fun, follow-along interactive manner. My aim is that by the time you complete this book, you will be confident in your adoption of Databricks SQL as the enabler of your business intelligence.

This book does not intend to be a definitive guide or a complete reference, nor does it intend to be a replacement for the official documentation. It is too early for either of those. This book is your initiation into business intelligence on the data lakehouse, the Databricks SQL way.

Let’s begin!

In this chapter, we’ll cover the following topics:

• An overview of Databricks, the company
• An overview of the Lakehouse architecture
• An overview of the Databricks Lakehouse platform