
Dr. Derek Austin
Developer Advocate
Dr. Derek Austin is Developer Advocate for Propel, and he loves educating developers working on in-product analytics and data apps.
As a self-taught developer for over 20 years, Dr. Derek Austin loves learning new technologies. A graduate of Virginia Commonwealth University with a BS and MS in Bioinformatics and Doctor of Physical Therapy, Derek has been writing about web development on Medium since 2019. He currently works as Developer Advocate for Propel Data, where he helps developers build in-product analytics.
Articles by
Dr. Derek Austin

What’s the Difference Between a Data Warehouse and a Data Lake?
The main difference between data lakes and data warehouses is data lakes allow unstructured data, but data warehouses need structured data.

Dr. Derek Austin
October 12, 2022

What Are the Benefits of a Multi-Cluster Warehouse in Snowflake?
In Snowflake, you allocate “virtual warehouses” (computing clusters) to execute the SQL database commands that you run on the data platform.

Dr. Derek Austin
October 4, 2022

What Type of Data Warehouse Is Snowflake Data Platform?
With Snowflake, it’s possible to build an enterprise data warehouse (EDW), an operational data store (ODS), or a team-specific data mart.

Dr. Derek Austin
August 25, 2022

What Is the Use of a Virtual Warehouse in Snowflake Analytics?
In Snowflake, you allocate “virtual warehouses” (computing clusters) to execute the SQL database commands that you run on the data platform.

Dr. Derek Austin
August 16, 2022

How Does Snowflake Storage Work? (Databases & Schemas)
Databases and schemas ("namespaces") are used to organize data in Snowflake storage, which uses a columnar format internally for analytics.

Dr. Derek Austin
August 11, 2022

How Many Nodes Are in a Snowflake Virtual Warehouse?
Snowflake uses credits, which are analogous to CPU nodes, in order to pay for the virtual warehouses that power its analytical query engine.

Dr. Derek Austin
August 4, 2022

Is Snowflake a Data Warehouse for Analytics and Insights?
Snowflake data platform is referred to as a data warehouse or data lake because it separates storage (data) from compute (processing power).

Dr. Derek Austin
August 2, 2022

What Is the Difference Between a Database and a Warehouse in Snowflake?
Snowflake uses databases for data storage, while a “Snowflake warehouse” is a virtual computing cluster that processes analytical queries.

Dr. Derek Austin
July 28, 2022

What Is the Difference Between a Data Engineer, a Data Scientist, and a Data Analyst?
In the “Big Data” industry, there are big differences among the work responsibilities of data scientists, data engineers, and data analysts.

Dr. Derek Austin
July 22, 2022

How Many Virtual Warehouses Can Snowflake Hold?
Snowflake data platform allows many virtual warehouses in one account, but multi-cluster virtual warehouses are an Enterprise-only feature.

Dr. Derek Austin
July 20, 2022

What Is a Multi-Cluster Virtual Warehouse in Snowflake Data Platform?
Multi-cluster virtual warehouses auto-scale compute resources based on the demands on the data warehouse. Here’s how they work in Snowflake.

Dr. Derek Austin
July 15, 2022

What Are Warehouses in Snowflake Data Analytics Platform?
Snowflake’s virtual warehouses are computing clusters that process the data analytics commands you run on Snowflake data analytics platform.

Dr. Derek Austin
July 13, 2022