What If You Could See Through the Cloud?
What if you could see every line of code that runs your platform? A thought experiment about transparent infrastructure, built on the shoulders of giants. None of this exists yet, but maybe it should.
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The Trenches
Practical engineering insights from the frontlines. Deep dives into data architecture, infrastructure economics, and system design.
Latest Articles
View allSnowflake & Databricks Lost the Plot
Bleeding millions of dollars? These data platforms claim 70%+ net profit margins. That money comes from your budget. An honest analysis of pricing, vendor lock-in, and when open-source alternatives make more economic sense.
Shift Left or Stay Right?
A deep dive into the streaming vs batch processing paradigm, exploring when to use each approach, the architectural trade-offs, and practical decision frameworks.
Topics
Data Architecture
Streaming vs batch processing, modern data stacks, and architectural patterns.
Infrastructure Economics
Cost analysis, vendor comparisons, and build-vs-buy decisions.
System Design
Practical patterns, operational complexity, and real-world trade-offs.
About
I'm Boyan Balev, a software engineer focused on data infrastructure and distributed systems. This blog shares practical insights from building and operating data platforms at scale.
Every article comes from real experience in the trenches - no ivory tower architectures, just patterns that work in production.