PAW 2019 Conference Series - Tony Ayaz - Gemini Data

Welcome to the 2019 Predictive Analytics World (PAW) Conference Series. Recorded live in Las Vegas, this series is bringing interviews straight to you from exhibitors and speakers at this year’s event. In this interview, host Jamin Brazil interviews Tony Ayaz, CEO and Co-founder of Gemini Data Inc. Find Tony Online: Email: [email protected] LinkedIn Gemini Data Inc. [00:02] Tony, when did you start Gemini? [00:03]   We started the company in 2015. [00:06]   2015.  We’re in the Happy Market Research Podcast right now.  We’re at Predictive Analytics World and Marketing Analytics World and there’s lots of worlds in this particular conference. I think there’s like twelve.  Have you guys been to this conference before?  [00:19]   This is actually our first time at this conference.  And for us, I think it’s a win because what we’re looking for is real users with real pain a little bit beyond the typical IT folks that we’re looking for. [00:32]   Got it.  So, you’re based out of San Francisco.  You started the business in 2015; so, you’ve had some success obviously.  Tell me a little bit about what you guys do. [00:41] Sure.  At Gemini Data, we help our customers with digital transformation initiatives.  What I mean by that is we help customers achieve data availability. And data availability is a necessary requirement today if you’re really looking to do something significant or on digital transformation, AI, or ML initiatives.  And what we mean by that is that you have to access to data and you have to make that data available. And there’s a lot of talk about out-of-the-box machine learning solutions and things that are out there in the market. But the reality is that if you’re doing complex things and trying to run your business, you need data diversity, and you only get that through data availability.  And so, what we do is we leverage the customer’s existing investments in various, different data platforms: it could be in a CSV; it could be in a data lake. It doesn’t really matter to us. We have a method that we apply called Zero Copy Data Virtualization that actually takes your data that’s sourced without you to move or copy that data or do the complex ETL processes that we’ve all been used to for the past two to three decades, which just simply doesn’t scale with AI.     [01:47] Data diversity is a term I’ve never heard before, but it is my favorite one in this conference.  Diversity is something that we’ve... we’re becoming more and more aware, especially in the Bay Area, like Silicon Valley...  I’d say globally you’re seeing... The math is that if you have more diversity in your senior leadership team, then you have a better world view, which gives you an improved advantage in the marketplace, right?        [02:12]    Exactly. [02:13] And what’s interesting is how you’re connecting that in with data.  It isn’t about a single… right? It’s about different types of data.  You mentioned CSV versus data lake, which are vastly different, like profoundly different.  Your system is able to ingest both of those?