INTELLIGENCE
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How to Set Up Snowflake Cortex Analyst
Snowflake Cortex Analyst lets analysts and business users ask plain-English questions about their warehouse data and get SQL-generated answers instantly. Setup requires a Snowflake account, a semantic model YAML file that maps your tables into business terms, and either a Streamlit interface or the Cortex REST API. This guide walks through each step from environment prep to running your first natural language query.
How to Get Started with Kestra
Kestra is an open-source, YAML-based workflow orchestrator that lets ops managers and analysts automate data pipelines without writing Python code. You install it with a single Docker command, define tasks in a plain-text YAML file, and trigger them on a schedule or from an event like a file upload. Most teams have their first automated pipeline running within an hour of installation.
How to Get Started with Microsoft Fabric
Microsoft Fabric is a unified analytics platform that consolidates data ingestion, storage, transformation, and reporting into a single Microsoft-hosted workspace. It replaces the need to separately manage Azure Data Factory, Azure Synapse Analytics, and Power BI by centralizing them under OneLake, a single logical data store. Teams that already use Power BI or Microsoft 365 can activate Fabric through a 60-day free trial at app.fabric.microsoft.com without provisioning separate Azure resources.
How to Set Up Fivetran to Sync Data to Your Warehouse
Fivetran is a managed ELT service that moves data from over 500 sources into a central warehouse automatically. You connect a source, pick a destination, and Fivetran handles schema detection, syncing, and ongoing maintenance without code. The setup takes under 30 minutes for most connectors. This guide walks through account creation, destination configuration, connector setup, and first sync verification.
How to Set Up ChatGPT for Excel (2026 Add-In)
OpenAI launched ChatGPT for Excel on March 5, 2026, as a native add-in powered by GPT-5.4. It installs directly into Excel and lets users build formulas, analyze data, and update models through plain-English prompts. The add-in is available to ChatGPT Pro, Plus, Business, Enterprise, Edu, and teacher accounts. It does not yet support VBA macros, Power Query, or Pivot Table modifications.
What to Do After Apache Airflow 2 End of Life
Apache Airflow 2 reached end of life on April 22, 2026, ending all security patches and bug fixes for the 2.x line. Teams running Airflow 2 now face two paths: upgrade to Airflow 3, which introduces breaking changes across existing DAGs, or migrate to an alternative orchestrator like Kestra or Prefect. The right choice depends on team size, Python expertise, and how urgently compliance deadlines apply.
How to Get Started with Apache Iceberg Using DuckDB
Apache Iceberg is an open table format that adds ACID transactions, schema evolution, and time travel to files stored on object storage or local disk. DuckDB's Iceberg extension lets analysts query and write Iceberg tables with a single pip install and no Spark cluster required. This guide walks through installing the extension, creating your first table, running queries, and understanding the v3 features that changed how deletions and semi-structured data are handled.
How to Get Started with MotherDuck
MotherDuck is a serverless cloud data warehouse built on DuckDB. You connect with one line of Python, get 10 GB free with no credit card, and the query planner routes each operation between your laptop and the cloud based on where data lives. Teams use it to share live databases without exporting files and to query S3 directly in SQL.
How to Get Started with SQLMesh
SQLMesh is an open-source data transformation framework built as a faster, more reliable alternative to dbt. It introduces a plan-based workflow that shows exactly what SQL models will run and what data will change before any transformation executes. To get started, install it with pip, run sqlmesh init duckdb in a new directory, then run sqlmesh plan to preview your first environment. The whole setup takes under ten minutes on any machine with Python.