At the annual Semantic Layer Summit, AtScale made two announcements. The first is the public preview of the AtScale Developer Community Edition. The second is updates to the AtScale Semantic Layer platform. The platform that enables analysts to perform sub-second, multidimensional analysis with popular BI and AI tools.
Next Generation Semantic Layer platform
During the keynote, AtScale introduced the latest innovations for its platform. As it looks to further its mission to make data more accessible for business users. The platform provides a layer that sits between the data repository and the analytics applications. To present data in a way that business users can understand.
The latest updates enhance its capabilities. Reducing duplications, enhancing collaboration and empowering organisations to extract more value from their data assets. In a modern world where it is said that data is the new oil. It allows organisations to refine their data to deliver greater value. Ultimately, this enables them to differentiate from the competition, increasing their competitiveness.
The latest update contains features that align with the three core innovation pillars: flexibility, collaboration and community. The last is also supported by the release of the new Developer Community Edition.
Dave Mariani, Founder and CTO, AtScale commented, “This is a significant milestone in our mission to empower organizations with data-driven insights while supporting collaboration across the data and analytics community. The semantic layer serves as a key technology enabler for delivering the best of both worlds; business-friendly, self-service analytics, but with governance and control. By supporting traditional BI teams alongside a new generation of analytics users, our ‘plug and build’ approach accelerates data-driven innovations in a unique way.”
What is in the new release
Key features of the next-generation platform include:
- Container Deployment: New deployment options tailored to the cloud’s characteristics, such as scalability, elasticity, resilience, and automation. Users can deploy AtScale microservices via Kubernetes or Docker. Facilitating self-managed Kubernetes deployments and seamless integration with cloud environments such as Snowflake, Databricks and Google Cloud.
- Context for AI and LLMs: AtScale has established a metadata hub and common language. Simplifying the process of incorporating any model or approach with GenAI and LLMs within the appropriate business context.
- Enhanced Integration and Protocols Support: There is new open-source packaging for Keycloak, OpenTelemetry, OpenAPI, and KeyGen, as well as additional support for BI tooling and open protocols.
- dbt Metrics Translator: AtScale has included its SML translator for dbt. Allowing dbt semantic models to work with AtScale’s first-class, live query support for consumption tools including Tableau, Power BI, and Excel.
- New Semantic Modeling User Experience: A new semantic modelling Integrated Development Environment (IDE) to support both no-code and code-first data modelling in the same user experience. AtScale’s YAML-based modelling language can be used by any development IDE and supports full CI/CD integration with Git as the source of truth.
Mariani added, “The significance of cultivating a shared understanding of data throughout an organization cannot be overstated. As AI usage grows throughout the enterprise – and AI models become more sophisticated – the need for high-quality, well-understood data increases. The semantic layer empowers AI with context and clarity, enabling these models to not just process data, but understand it and use it to improve long-term decision making.”
Developer Community Edition for Semantic Modelling
The public preview of the community edition delivers a fully functional downloadable Atscale semantic layer platform. With a limit of 500 queries each month. Once installed it allows users to build and share semantic models supporting collaboration across business analysts and engineers. The platform provides a code-first and no-code modelling interface to support different users.
This platform empowers “hub and spoke” analytics across the organisation and enables users to leverage reusable semantic objects. The platform also can connect with a wide variety of BI and AI tools including Power BI, Excel, Tableau, Looker, AutoML and Jupyter. The edition is provided free, and will provide the first real glimpse of the power that AtScale can provide.
Other key features of the community edition include:
Semantic Modeling Language –
As a part of today’s launch of AtScale’s next-generation platform, a sophisticated, object-oriented modelling language called the semantic modelling language (SML) was introduced to fully express complex business concepts. SML facilitates the sharing and reusing of composable and versionable semantic objects. Supporting an analytics mesh or hub-and-spoke governance style for users.
Business-Friendly Interface –
Simplified access to data through a unified, user-friendly interface. It enables users to comprehend and analyze data without needing to know complex query languages or database knowledge. This fosters quicker, more informed decision-making across organizations while ensuring consistency and accuracy in reporting and analytics.
Public Semantic Model GitHub Repository –
AtScale Developer Community Edition adds a public GitHub repository for pre-built, reusable semantic models. Empowering users and the community to share, learn, and innovate together, making the benefits of analytics widely accessible. Industry-specific semantic models are readily available for use with any BI tool. Offering immense value to companies seeking to leverage data modelling in their operations.
The libraries include:
- Retail Insights Enhancement – Retail organizations can seamlessly integrate third-party data providers such as CRISP using Databricks’ data marketplace. By leveraging the repository’s pre-built CRISP data model at the same time, these organizations can also gain operational insights through their BI tool of choice, such as Power BI, Tableau and Excel.
- Operational Efficiency in Finance – Financial services customers can enhance their operations by leveraging a smart data fabric architecture enriched with a pre-built semantic model that speeds time to insight.
- Advanced Analytics Transition – Pre-built data models facilitate a smooth transition from Google Analytics 4 to the next generation of warehouse-native digital analytics.
Dave Mariani, CTO and founder of AtScale, commented, “AtScale is deeply committed to democratizing analytics consumption within organizations and evolving semantic model creation. We recognize that rich semantic models and analytics are the result of team efforts. Our Developer Community Edition empowers the entire community to share, learn, and innovate together, making analytics benefits accessible to all.”
Enterprise Times: What does this mean
This is a significant update for the Semantic Layer platform. Additional integrations and the new IDE will help organisations to democratise the use of analytics tools across the organisation. One of the key challenges for the successful deployment of analytics is having users that understand the data structures they are interrogating. AtScale helps to resolve this issue.
The new community edition will also help AtScale extend its reach into other organisations as a free download that organisations can try before they buy. They can identify the value of the AtScale platform without the need to make a large commitment.
