Phani is the author of Azure Databricks Cookbook, we got the chance to sit down with him and find out more about his experience of writing with Packt.
Q: What is/are your specialist tech area(s)?
Phani: Data warehouse, Big Data Solution on Azure Data Stack.
Q: How did you become an author for Packt? Tell us about your journey. What was your motivation for writing this book?
Phani: I wanted to share details that I have learned the hard way on Azure Databricks which could benefit many folks out there who are using Azure Databricks to build Data Ingestion pipelines. I wanted to share a journey with the readers on how they can starting using Azure Databricks from ingesting data from various sources, build end-to-end pipelines easily and finally deploy and monitor them which is difficult to find in a single book. This journey will help people new to Azure Databricks also help existing users of Azure Databricks to learn a lot of stuff from this book. As I was thinking about writing such stuff, the Packt team contacted me and my dream converted into reality.
Q: What kind of research did you do, and how long did you spend researching before beginning the book?
Phani: It took many months as and when I was working on projects using Azure Databricks for Data Engineering and Data Science work. I shared my findings with colleagues and received great responses and then I started thinking that this kind of information will be very helpful to a larger audience.
Q: Did you face any challenges during the writing process? How did you overcome them?
Phani: How do I ensure people who are new to Azure Databricks can get along and there should interesting topics for those people who are already using Azure Databricks.
Q: What’s your take on the technologies discussed in the book? Where do you see these technologies heading in the future?
Phani: Azure Databricks would be used in almost all big data projects and might be the center for all Data Engineering and Data Science work.
Q: Why should readers choose this book over others already on the market? How would you differentiate your book from its competition?
Phani: There is no other book in the market that takes the readers through the entire journey of building end-end data ingestion pipelines, productionizing the solution, monitoring and learning Databricks SQL to write ad-hoc queries, and build great dashboards. The reader will learn how Azure Databricks can be integrated with Kafka and also with real-time data ingestion service in Azure like Azure Event Hub.
Q. What are the key takeaways you want readers to come away from the book with?
Phani: a) Learn how to Build end-end near real-time data ingestion pipelines. b) How to automate the deployment of solutions to various environments using Azure DevOps. c) Using Databricks SQL, how to write ad-hoc queries and build near real-time dashboards.
Q. What advice would you give to readers learning tech? Do you have any top tips?
Phani: Spark is used everywhere and learning Azure Databricks will take your Data Engineering and Data Science skill set to the next level. Keep practicing and more about query execution.
Q. Do you have a blog that readers can follow?
Phani: https://azure.microsoft.com/en-in/blog/5-reasons-databricks-runs-best-on-azure/
Q. Can you share any blogs, websites, and forums to help readers gain a holistic view of the tech they are learning?
Phani: https://databricks.com/blog/2017/11/15/introducing-azure-databricks.html
Q. What are your favorite tech journals? How do you keep yourself up to date on tech?
Phani: I follow a lot of technical blogs and follow https://azure.microsoft.com/en-in/updates/ to get all the updates on Azure.
Q. How would you describe your author journey with Packt? Would you recommend Packt to aspiring authors?
Phani: First time as an author, I should say my experience with Packt has been excellent. They have provided all the resources and help during the course of writing this book. I would recommend Packt to all aspiring authors.
Q. What is the one writing tip that you found most crucial and would like to share with aspiring authors?
Phani: Focus on content and topics which can’t be found easily and include your real experience which will connect the readers in a much better way.
You can find Phani’s book on Amazon by following this link click.
