Modern Data Architecture in Practice with NetApp Instaclustr, WhereScape, Hydrolix

Industry experts from NetApp Instaclustr, WhereScape, and Hydrolix share practical approaches to scalable data architectures, automated pipelines, and streaming data lakes in a recent DBTA webinar.

Database Trends and Applications (DBTA) recently hosted a roundtable webinar titled "Modern Data Architecture in Practice: What's Actually Working in 2026," featuring experts from NetApp Instaclustr, WhereScape, and Hydrolix. The session provided practical insights into how organizations are rethinking data infrastructure to support AI, analytics, and real-time processing at scale.

Bassam Chahine, Principal Consultant at NetApp Instaclustr, discussed the company's work optimizing open-source databases on NetApp storage. Instaclustr, acquired by NetApp in 2024, specializes in managed platforms for Apache Cassandra, Kafka, and PostgreSQL. A notable case study showed PostgreSQL on Azure NetApp Files delivering 325% faster transactions at 70% lower cost compared to standard cloud storage, demonstrating how modern architectures can dramatically improve price-performance.

Paul Watson-Gover, Senior Solutions Architect at WhereScape addressed metadata-driven automation for data warehousing. WhereScape's tools enable data engineers to design, modernize, and migrate data infrastructure without hand-coding pipelines. The platform supports deployment across SQL Server, Snowflake, Databricks, Microsoft Fabric, and Redshift, with automated documentation and governance that stays synchronized as environments evolve. This approach helps organizations scale from simple data marts to multi-petabyte Data Vault implementations.

The webinar also explored streaming data lake architecture with Hydrolix, which combines decoupled object storage with real-time query performance. Hydrolix treats all data as "hot," eliminating storage tier management while achieving 20-to-50 fold compression rates. The platform runs on Kubernetes, scales compute independently for ingest and query, and supports sub-second queries on terabyte-scale datasets. Recent integrations with AWS Elemental Media services enable media companies to analyze streaming performance from origin to edge.

The panel emphasized that modern data architecture must balance scalability, governance, and cost efficiency while remaining flexible enough to accommodate AI workloads and evolving business requirements. The full webinar recording is available through DBTA.