Your Data Isn't That Big with Tim Costello

Title: Your Data Isn't That Big

Abstract:
Somewhere along the way, we convinced ourselves that every data problem is a big data problem. We spin up clusters, manage infrastructure, and architect pipelines for datasets that would fit comfortably in RAM. After 20 years of SQL work, I've started asking a different question: what if most of our problems are actually small data problems that we've been solving with big data tools? A quiet shift is happening: tools like DuckDB and Microsoft's Data Wrangler are making laptop-scale analytics surprisingly powerful, no server required. This isn't about replacing your production stack. It's about reclaiming the 90% of analytical work that never needed infrastructure in the first place.

This session is part philosophy and part live demo. We'll explore where DuckDB fits in a practitioner's toolkit, see it connect directly to CSVs, Parquet files, and remote data sources without import ceremonies, and I'll show you a few things that might rewire how you think about ad-hoc analysis. Whether you're a consultant who needs to work on a plane, a DBA tired of standing up environments for quick questions, or just someone who's felt the industry has been overcomplicating things, this talk is for you.

6:00 pm - get to MS Las Colinas & get some food
6:30 - 6:45ish - Announcements & Ask the Experts
6:45-7pm - Start Presentation
8:30pm - End Presentation; Wrap Up
When: Thursday, January 15, 2026
Food - Pizza