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A single mobile app now provides camera-to-cloud access to the Alteon Network.

Alteon.io has joined the camera-to-cloud revolution with a new app that adds iOS integration to its cloud-based ecosystem of apps and tools which support online connectivity for mobile filmmakers. The new app will enable iPhone creators to securely upload media directly to Alteon Cloud servers and make that content available to collaborators in real time.

Over the last two decades, Ive attended NAB every year, and Ive seen firsthand the shifts that revolutionized our industry, says Alteon co-founder & CEO Matt Cimaglia. With Alteon, my goal was to build the tool I always wanted to find at the show. It never existeduntil now.

What does this new tech mean for filmmakers like you? Let's get into it.

Alteon Cloud offers an expansive ecosystem of tools designed for content management and collaboration. Users will be able to create tiers with permission for extensive tagging and commenting on projects, scene changes, and other collaborative situations through the Alteon CMS interface.

Apps including Alteon Accelerator for upload of original camera files, and Alteon Transcoder for generating proxies of high-resolution Raw camera files, including Blackmagic Raw, give users the means to have a useful, cloud-based portal for getting files into a post-production workflow faster than ever.

Moreover, Alteon has launched a new iOS app that will enable mobile filmmakers and content creators to have camera-to-cloud support and securely upload media from the iPhones camera roll directly to Alteon Cloud for immediate collaboration. Users can also interact with Final Cut Pro with the Alteon workflow extension.

Through the app, mobile content creators will be able to:

The app is available for download now at the Apple App Store.

We visited the Alteon booth at NAB 2023 to chat with the team about their new updates. Here's what we discovered:

The booth also hosted presentations on topics including the Evolution of News Media, Connecting Final Cut Pro to the Cloud, Hybrid Storage Solutions, and the Past, Present, and Future of Creative Technology. If you've ever planned on going to NAB, this is your sign toattend next year, especially if you're a gearhead.

Is itenough to rival Frame.io? We'll have to find out.

Let us know what you think of Alteon's camera-to-cloud ecosystem.

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What Filmmakers Need to Know About Alteon's Rival to Frame.io - No Film School

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As the race to deploy enterprise-grade generative AI moves forward, the three hyperscalers AWS, Microsoft and Google are providing glimpses of how large language models and the tools they enable are reshaping infrastructure.

Running generative AI at scale will require massive data storage and compute power on top of the infrastructure, platform, data and software services already supported by cloud.

While excess capacity is built into the cloud model, the added volume will put stress on current infrastructure that the hyperscalers are already moving to relieve.

Alphabet is building out Google Cloud data centers and redistributing workloads to accommodate AI compute, the companys CEO Sundar Pichai said during a Q1 2023 earnings calllast month.

Microsoft is focusing on optimizing Azure infrastructure to achieve the same goal, CEO Satya Nadella said during the companys March earnings call.

The question of resources is, however, top of mind. The accelerated compute is what gets used to drive AI," Nadella said. "And the thing that we are very, very focused on is to make sure that we get very efficient in the usage of those resources.

AWS unveiled the next generation of Inferentia2 and Trainium for SageMakerlast week. The new chips address the need for more powerful, efficient and cost-effective cloud compute hardware to handle ML inference and model building loads, according to Amazon.

Amazon CEO Andy Jassy touted AI chip technology advances in a Q1 2023 earnings calllast month.

The bottom layer here is that all of the large language models are going to run on compute, Jassy said. And the key to that compute is going to be the chip thats in that compute."

To date, Jassy said. I think a lot of the chips there, particularly GPUs, which are optimized for this type of workload, theyre expensive and theyre scarce. Its hard to find enough capacity.

Processing the data has to be quick and requires highly scalable compute abilities, said Sid Nag, VP analyst at Gartner.

If everybody starts building new applications that use generative AI tools rather than traditional SQL, you can just imagine what kind of load it is going to put on cloud infrastructure, Nag said.

The hyperscalers will have to prioritize efficiency to make the technology affordable on top of adding capacity.

Already, costs are a concern. OpenAIs CEO Sam Altman described the compute bills for ChatGPTas eye-watering in a December tweet.

A single training run for a typical GPT-3 model could cost as much as $5 million, according to a recent National Bureau of Economic Research working paper.

New Street Research estimated the infrastructure price tag for adding ChatGPT features to Microsofts Bing search engine could reach $4 billion, according to a CNBC report. Currently, Bing has less than 3% of the global market for search.

A shift from raw central processors to more specialized forms of computing powered by graphics processing units, Googles AI-accelerating tensor processing units and a new generation of NVIDIA products, creates a new cost dynamic, said Scott Young, director of infrastructure research at Info-Tech Research Group.

This mix has and will continue to drive the need to increase space to house this compute or properly balance existing space utilization based on customer and internal hyperscaler demand, Young said.

The challenge is a business opportunity.

The platform size needed to support generative AI functions isnt a feasible in-house option for most enterprises, according to Young.

With most enterprises turning to cloud to provide the specialized platforms and raw power needed, it becomes a new opportunity for hyperscalers to increase market share, Young said.

Investments in chips, servers and other infrastructure to support AI advances are not new, according to Nag.

Moores Law, which postulates that the number of transistors in a chip and thus its compute power doubles every two years, remains top of mind for the hyperscalers.

Before the AI wave, Google and the others were trying to drive down the cost of their data centers, making them more efficient and more sustainable with better silicon technology, Nag said.

Training better models and identifying enterprise use cases are the current industry focus. That will give way to fine-tuning the technology to meet specific needs.

The reality, by the way, is that most people are spending most of their time and money on the training, Jassy said. But as these models graduate to production, where theyre in the apps, all the spend is going to be in inference.

See more here:
The AI boom is reshaping the cloud business - CIO Dive

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ExpressVPN is, without a doubt, the best VPN for streaming. Beyond its blazing-fast speeds and unmatched unblocking capability, the VPN service has excellent device compatibility, with native apps for Windows, Mac, Linux, Android, smart TVs and routers. The company also offers ExpressVPN MediaStreamer for devices that arent VPN compatible.

In this guide, well delve into the nitty-gritty details of ExpressVPN MediaStreamer. Well tell you what MediaStreamer is and its best use cases, as well as list some of the devices it works with and why you should (or shouldnt) consider using it.

Well also demonstrate how to set up and troubleshoot MediaStreamer if you decide to use the service. Lets dig in.

ExpressVPN MediaStreamer is a smart DNS service built to improve your streaming experience on non-VPN-capable devices. We have a comprehensive guide on how the DNS service unblocks geoblocked content.

The smart DNS service routes your requests through a DNS server in the predetermined country. For example, if you want to access streaming services in the U.S., youd set the smart DNS to route all requests through a server in the United States.

The smart DNS scrubs your traffic of any location-identifying data. This way, when the traffic is routed through the proxy server, the DNS address appears to come from the U.S. As a result, you can access U.S. streaming content regardless of your location.

A smart DNS erases identifying location data from your traffic.

While the ExpressVPN MediaStreamer helps you access geo-restricted content, its not a VPN. It acts as an intermediary between you and the streaming services, enabling you to bypass geo-restrictions, albeit without encryption or IP masking. In other words, MediaStreamer can help you access geoblocked content, but it doesnt provide the security and privacy benefits of a VPN.

The bottom line is that ExpressVPN MediaStreamer is really only viable if you need a smooth and fast streaming experience, or need to bypass geoblocks on devices that dont support VPNs. However, if online protection is a priority, MediaStreamer wont provide the sufficient online security and privacy required to conceal your web activity.

ExpressVPN MediaStreamer offers greater flexibility over the devices you can use to stream movies and TV shows. As we mentioned earlier, the DNS service is compatible with devices that dont support the native ExpressVPN app, including:

However, despite being compatible with all of these kinds of devices, your specific device must be capable of setting a custom DNS. Otherwise, you wont be able to set MediaStreamer up. Conversely, even if your device is not listed above, you can set up MediaStreamer on it if it lets you set a custom DNS.

While it doesnt offer the security benefits of a VPN, ExpressVPN MediaStreamer comes in handy in various situations.

Firstly, MediaStreamer is a safe bet if you want to unblock streaming services on devices that dont support VPN apps. If youre using one of the devices mentioned above and have tried installing a VPN to no avail, MediaStreamer will let you access your go-to streaming service without a hitch.

Secondly, you can use MediaStreamer to connect more than five streaming devices. ExpressVPN offers only five simultaneous connections, so if youre in a bigger household, MediaStreamer allows you to connect more devices, as it doesnt count against ExpressVPNs device limit.

Lastly, MediaStreamer might be the tool you need for a faster streaming experience. We have determined through our tests that VPN encryption slows down connection speeds. Since the DNS service doesnt encrypt your traffic, it wont slow down your internet connection speeds. The result is a faster streaming experience.

While ExpressVPN MediaStreamer is useful in a number of situations, a VPN is generally a better tool overall. Streaming VPNs offer benefits you usually dont get with MediaStreamer. For example, you can access movie libraries worldwide with a VPN.

In addition, a VPN encrypts your traffic and assigns you a new IP address. This makes your online activity untraceable by snoopers, hackers or internet service providers (ISPs). VPNs shield you from cyber threats and ISP throttling a case when your ISP intentionally slows down your connection when they notice youre engaging in a data-heavy activity, such as streaming.

A virtual private network encrypts your internet traffic and masks your IP address to enhance online privacy and security.

On top of that, the fastest VPNs use modern, lightweight VPN protocols, which reduce the impact of encryption on connection speed. For example, ExpressVPN and NordVPN are so fast that you wont even notice the VPNs are on when streaming.

Last but not least, VPNs are not limited to streaming; they have several uses. You can use them for streaming one day and bypassing internet censorship the next.

The shortcomings of ExpressVPN MediaStreamer emanate from the fact that its not a VPN. Here are the key challenges with MediaStreamer.

The biggest shortcoming is that MediaStreamer doesnt encrypt your traffic. This means that snoopers, hackers, government agencies and your internet service provider can monitor your internet activity if they want to, leaving you prone to cyberattacks and ISP throttling.

MediaStreamer can only be used to access a limited number of streaming libraries. A VPN gives you a large pool of IP addresses, leaving you free to unblock streaming libraries anywhere a VPN server is available.

For example, if youre using ExpressVPN, you access content in 94 countries. You can watch Netflix U.S. now and keep up with your favorite British show on BBC iPlayer later with just a few clicks.

MediaStreamer takes away that flexibility and is limited to just a few locations. An ExpressVPN representative told us that MediaStreamer works with U.S. and U.K. content. If youre in the U.S. and fancy a movie on Netflix Canada or France, you cant access it with MediaStreamer.

Theres more you cant just switch between U.K. and U.S. locations. Instead, you have to set a specific IP address on MediaStreamer each time you want to change your location.

If you set it to a U.S. IP address, you can access movie libraries in the U.S., such as Netflix U.S., Hulu and Amazon Prime Video. To access movies on BBC iPlayer, youd have to manually reconfigure MediaStreamer and set it to a U.K. IP address.

If you have used a VPN, you know its easy to set up a native app on your device. Just download and install the service and youre good to go.

Setting up ExpressVPN MediaStreamer isnt as straightforward. You have to register the IP address on the ExpressVPN website and tweak your devices network settings. That can be lengthy and time-consuming.

Speaking of the MediaStreamer setup process, there are four stages:

The first two are similar whether youre setting up MediaStreamer on a smart TV, router, gaming console or other platform. However, the last two stages will change depending on your device.

This guide will show you how to register your IP address on the ExpressVPN website and get a MediaStreamer server IP address. Once you get the MediaStreamer server IP, head over to the ExpressVPN setup page for specific instructions for your device.

Go to the ExpressVPN DNS settings page and sign in using your ExpressVPN credentials. Enter the verification code sent to your email address.

The register my IP address button will be green if your IP isnt registered. Click register my IP address to register your IP. The button will turn gray when the IP is registered successfully.

Toggle the automatically register my IP address button on to allow ExpressVPN to track changes to the IP address if you have a dynamic IP address.

Under the DNS configuration checker, confirm the configuration status of your device. If youve yet to configure the DNS on your device, click the configure DNS on this device button.

Clicking the configure DNS on this device button will take you to the ExpressVPN setup page. Youll see the activation code on the left and two MediaStreamer IPs on the right column beside the list of devices.

If youre configuring MediaStreamer on Windows or Mac, keep this browser window open youll need to copy the MediaStreamer IP. Open the instructions page for your device and follow the installation procedure to get MediaStreamer up and running.

Like every other software tool, the ExpressVPN MediaStreamer can sometimes experience glitches, making accessing your go-to streaming services harder than it should be. If youre receiving an error message when you try to use MediaStreamer, or the tool simply isnt working, here are some remedies you can try:

ExpressVPN MediaStreamer is a handy tool for avid movie and TV show enthusiasts with devices that dont support native VPN apps. As we have mentioned, the DNS service makes it easy to access geo-restricted movie libraries on smart TVs, gaming consoles and other devices running popular OSs.

However, ExpressVPN MediaStreamer has its shortcomings. It doesnt encrypt your traffic or mask your IP, which can jeopardize your online security and privacy. We recommend using MediaStreamer only when using a non-VPN-compatible device.

If security and privacy are priorities, you should use a premium VPN for streaming. A VPN, such as ExpressVPN or the cheaper NordVPN, delivers an excellent streaming experience without compromising digital security and privacy.

Have you used ExpressVPN MediaStreamer on your device? What type of device did you configure MediaStreamer on? Did it deliver the streaming experience you expected? Wed like to hear about it in the comment section. As always, thank you for reading.

Let us know if you liked the post. Thats the only way we can improve.

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ExpressVPN MediaStreamer in 2023 [What Is It & How to Use It] - Cloudwards

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Databricksis a software company based in San Francisco, California. The creators of Apache Spark, including Ali Ghodsi, Andy Konwinski, Arsalan Tavakoli-Shiraji, Ion Stoica, Matei Zaharia, Patrick Wendell, and Reynold Xin, founded it in 2013.

In Nov 2017, the company became a first-party service on Microsoft Azure. Databricks has around 4,000 employees and serves over 7,000 customers, including enterprises and startups. The company plans to hire additional 2,500 workers. In Aug 2022, Databricks had a valuation of $38 billion and hit a run rate of $1 billion. [1]

Databricks offers several products, including Delta Lake, Delta Engine MLflow, and Koalas. However, its top-selling service is the Lakehouse, which combines a data lake with a data warehouse in a single solution. It is based on the open-source Apache Spark framework, allowing users to execute analytical queries against semi-structured data without a traditional database schema.

In Oct 2022, Databricks Lakehouse Platform received FedRAMP authorized status. This authorization makes it the go-to solution for the US government and contractors.

In Dec 2022, Databricks was named a Leader in Gartners Magic Quadrant for Cloud Database Management Systems. However, the company faces stiff competition from AWS, Google Cloud BigQuery, Microsoft, MongoDB, Oracle, DataStax, Redis, and Db2. [2]

Here is an in-depth analysis of Databricks top 15 competitors and alternatives:

Year founded:2006 Headquarter:Seattle, Washington

AWS is the worlds most comprehensive cloud offering. It has more than 200 fully featured services, including computing, storage, databases, networking, analytics, AI, the Internet of Things (IoT), virtual and augmented reality, and app development. In 2022, AWS was available in 96 zones across 30 geographic regions globally.

Both AWS and Databricks help organizations leverage and manage data, but AWS also offers Amazon Aurora and Amazon Redshift. In Nov 2022, AWS launched Amazon Aurora zero-ETL integration with Amazon Redshiftto enable customers to analyze petabytes of data in near real-time.

The company also integrated Amazon Redshift with Apache Spark. These two integrations make it easier for users to analyze data across data stores, making AWS the top Databricks competitor and alternative. [3]

Year founded:2010 Headquarter:Mountain View, California

BigQuery was developed by Google in Nov 2011 and is a serverless data warehouse. It is a Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) that enables scalable analysis over petabytes of data. In 2021, Google had around 119,000 employees.

BigQuery has built-in machine learning capabilities and supports querying using ANSI SQL. In Oct 2022, Google Cloud unveiled several BigQuery upgrades and enhancements. Users can analyze unstructured and streaming data in BigQuery and access ML, translation, speech recognition, computer vision, and text processing capabilities via BigQuerys SQL interface.

The platform now supportsApache Iceberg, Databricks Delta Lake, andApache Hudi. These enhancements increase BigQuerys competitive advantage over Databricks. [4]

Year founded:2019 Headquarter:Redmond, Washington

Azure Synapse Analyticsis an offering of Microsoft and is a cloud-based Enterprise Data Warehouse (EDW). It combines data integration, enterprise data warehousing, and big data analytics. Microsoft has more than 180,000 employees.

Azure Synapse Analytics is an unlimited information service that leverages Azure SQL Data Warehouse and massively parallel processing (MPP). Users can combine data storage and macro or Big Data analysis and run complex queries across petabytes of data.

However, the main advantage of using Synapse Analytics is its integration with Power BI and Azure ML, which provides a single service for all workloads. Azure Synapse Analytics is the best Databricks alternative for Microsoft Azure users. [5]

Year founded:2007 Headquarter:New York City, New York

MongoDB is a source-available, cross-platform database developed by MongoDB, Inc., an American software company. The document-oriented, NoSQL database program uses JSON-like documents with optional schemas. In 2022, MongoDB had 3,544 employees and 39,100 customers in over 100 countries.

MongoDBs document database supports JSON-like storage. It has a flexible data model that allows users to store unstructured data and leverage full indexing and replication with rich APIs.

In 2022, MongoDB was named a leader in The Forrester Wave: Translytical Data Platforms. The database has been downloaded over 325 million times and made available on the Microsoft Intelligent Data Platform to help developers build data apps at scale. MongoDB is one of the best Databricks alternatives. [6]

Year founded:1977 Headquarter:Austin, Texas

Oracle is a software company that offers the industrys first self-driving database. The Oracle Autonomous Database solution runs natively on Oracle Cloud Infrastructure. In Dec 2022, Gartner recognized Oracle as a Leader in the Magic Quadrant for Cloud Management Systems. [7]

Oracle Database automatically secures databases, optimizes for the workload, and scales resources as needed. It leverages Oracles converged database engine to deliver a complete set of capabilities to support different data types, workloads, and development styles.

This approach simplifies app development and reduces complexity, cost, and risk, making Oracle Database a formidable Databricks competitor.

Year founded:2010 Headquarter:Santa Clara, California

DataStax is a real-time data and AI company. It offers Astra Streaming and Astra DB, a cloud database-as-a-service (DBaaS) solution based on Apache Cassandra. In Jan 2023, DataStax acquired machine learning company Kaskada to unlock real-time AI. [8]

Both DataStax and Databricks simplify data management. With the addition of Kaskada, DataStax will give organizations a single environment to build AI-powered apps cost-effectively. The merger delivers an advanced AI model to enhance the relevance and context of real-time data.

In 2023, DataStax will introduce a new machine-learning cloud service. DataStax is one of the top alternatives to Databricks.

Year founded:2011 Headquarter:Mountain View, California

Redis is a computer software company that offers software, cloud services, and tools. Redis Enterprise Cloud is an open-source, in-memory NoSQL database. According to the Stack Overflow survey, Redis is the sixth most popular database globally.

The Redis database is open source but offers source-available extensions, an enterprise product, and a database-as-a-service (DBaaS) option. Around 25% of professional developers use Redis.

In Nov 2022, Redis acquired Ukrainian startup RESP.app to improve the user experience on the key-value database. Redis is one of the best Databricks alternatives for professional developers. [9]

Year founded:2008 Headquarter:Palo Alto, California

Clouderais a software company that offers enterprise data management systems. Its products cater to machine learning and data analysis use cases. In 2022, Cloudera had around 2,700 employees and over 1,800 customers.

Cloudera Data Platform offers cloud services and data processing solutions that organizations can access via private or public cloud servers, such as Microsoft Azure or AWS.

In Jan 2023, Cloudera was recognized as a Leader in Gartners Magic Quadrant for Cloud Database Management Systems (DBMS) and is a formidable competitor for Databricks. [10]

Year founded:1983 Headquarter:Armonk, New York

Db2 is a comprehensive suite of data management products developed by IBM. It includes database servers, which compete against Databricks solutions. In 2022, IBM had around 350,000 employees.

Db2 initially used the relational model, but IBM extended the platformto support non-relational structures. IBM introduced the universal container Db2u on RedHat OpenShift and expanded it to Amazon EKS and Azure AKS.

In Oct 2022, IBM announced plans to launch a database-as-a-service version of Db2 on hyper scaler clouds. This cloud-first strategy will increase Db2s competitive advantage over Databricks. [11]

Year founded:2010 Headquarter:Santa Clara, California

Couchbase Server is an open-source, NoSQL document-oriented database software package. It is optimized for interactive apps that allow concurrent users to create, store, retrieve, aggregate, manipulate, and present data.In 2022, over 30% of companies on the Fortune 100 list relied on Couchbase to power their apps.

Couchbase Server provides a flexible database platform to power apps and simplifies how developers and architects build, deploy, and consume modern apps. In Nov 2022,Couchbase partnered with AWS to offer integrated go-to-market incentives and technology integrations.

Users can migrate workloads to the Couchbase Capella DBaaS and run Capella App Service on AWS, making Couchbase a worthy alternative to Databricks. [12]

Year founded:2011 Headquarter:San Francisco, California

SingleStore is a cloud-native database management system for data-intensive apps. It offers ANSI SQL support, data ingest, and query processing. In 2022, the company had around 400 employees and served 300 customers.

SingleStore and Databricks offer database platforms, but SingleStore separates storage and computing. With this approach, SingleStores platform can process a trillion rows per second and ingest billions of data rows per hour to support real-time analytics and operational AI.

In Oct 2022, SingleStore raised $30 million from investors. This funding comes a few months after the company secured $116 million in a Series F round, increasing its total to $412 million. SingleStore is one of the top Databricks competitors in the relational database service market. [13]

Year founded:2012 Headquarter:Redwood City, California

TigerGraph is a leading ML and AI graph analytics platform. It supports advanced analytics and ML applications, such as fraud detection, AML, customer 360, supply chain, knowledge graph, cybersecurity, IoT, and network analysis.

In Dec 2022, TigerGraph was recognized in Gartners Magic Quadrant for Cloud Database Management Systems. [14]

TigerGraph is based on the industrys first distributed native graph database-as-a-service. It accelerates the adoption of graph technology with easy-to-use features.

Hundreds of data analysts and scientists use the platform to process analytics and transactional workloads in real-time, making TigerGraph one of the best Databricks alternatives for database management.

Year founded:2007 Headquarter:San Mateo, California

Neo4j is an enterprise-grade graph database management system. Itunlocks the business value of connections, influences, and relationships in data for organizations of all sizes.

In 2022, Neo4j had around 700 employees stationed in the US, India, Europe, and South East Asia. In Jun 2022,Neo4jraised $325 million in a Series F funding round. This investment increased Neo4js valuation to over $2 billion. [15]

Neo4js graph database combines native graph storage and processing, advanced security, scalable architecture, and an ACID-compliant transactional database. The company will use the funds for the expansion of its developer ecosystem and footprint globally. Neo4j is an intuitive Databricks alternative.

Year founded:2014 Headquarter:Mountain View, California

Yellowbrick Data is a database company that offers a modern and elastic data warehouse. It runs on-premises and in the cloud and separates storage and computing. Like Databricks, Yellowbrick allows enterprises to run complex queries on data.

Yellowbrick Data Warehouse helps large-scale enterprises eliminate complexity, reduce risk, and control costs. Users can run all their data across multi-cloud and on-premises instances.

In Jun 2022, Yellowbrick Data released its latest cloud data warehouse. Enterprises can now deploy the Yellowbrick Data Warehouse Platform on-premises or in AWS and run it in their cloud accounts. Yellowbrick Data is a worthy alternative to Databricks. [16]

Year founded:2012 Headquarter:Bozeman, Montana

Snowflake is a cloud computing and data cloud company. It offers data-as-a-service (DaaS), including cloud-based data storage and analytics. In 2022, Snowflake had 3,990 employees and over $1.2 billion in revenue.

Snowflake helps organizations maximize the value of their data. Thousands of customers use its integrated data warehouse platform to extract insights from data and develop innovative data applications.

In 2022, Snowflakes quarterly losses soared due to increased R&D investment and marketing expenses. Financial challenges undercut Snowflakes competitive advantage over Databricks. [17]

References & more information

Tell us what you think? Did you find this article interesting? Share your thoughts and experiences in the comments section below.

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Top 15 Databricks Competitors and Alternatives - Business Strategy Hub

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