In this episode of Data Engineering Central, I sit down with Bart Konieczny — data engineer, distributed systems expert, and well-known author in the Data and Spark ecosystem — for a deep technical conversation about modern data engineering.
We cover:
How Bart got into tech and distributed systems
His journey through different engineering roles
Spark internals and why they still matter
The realities of lakehouse architecture
Streaming vs batch systems
AI’s impact on data engineering
What engineers should focus on in 2026
In a world obsessed with abstractions and AI tooling, we explore whether understanding the internals is still worth it — or if the game has fundamentally changed.
If you’re a data engineer, architect, or platform leader trying to navigate the next phase of the lakehouse era, this one’s for you.
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🎙️ Data Engineering Central Podcast
Hosted by Daniel Beach
If you’re a CTO or data leader looking for help building or optimizing your data platform, reach out — consulting inquiries welcome.
