Summary
The Analytics Engineering Roundupis by Tristan Handy and Anna Filippova: Focuses on analytics engineering and its related ecosystem.
Hi! My name is Tristan. I’m a long-time data analyst and startup executive. Most recently, I’m the founder of dbt Labs, co-creator of dbt, and pioneer of the analytics engineering workflow.
OnAir Post: The Analytics Engineering Roundup
News
https://roundup.getdbt.com/p/from-docker-to-dagger-w-solomon-hykes
In this season of the Analytics Engineering podcast, Tristan is digging deep into the world of developer tools and databases. There are few more widely used developer tools than Docker. From its launch back in 2013, Docker has completely changed how developers ship applications.
In this episode, Tristan talks to Solomon Hykes, the founder and creator of Docker. They trace Docker’s rise from startup obscurity to becoming foundational infrastructure in modern software development. Solomon explains the technical underpinnings of containerization, the pivotal shift from platform-as-a-service to open-source engine, and why Docker’s developer experience was so revolutionary.
The conversation also dives into his next venture Dagger, and how it aims to solve the messy, overlooked workflows of software delivery. Bonus: Solomon shares how AI agents are reshaping how CI/CD gets done and why the next revolution in DevOps might already be here.
About
Overview
If analytics engineering is a new term for you, we wrote a guide on the topic. The TL;DR for me comes down to creating and disseminating knowledge within organizations. Decomposed to a bullet point list, you can think of the primary components of analytics engineering as:
- Creating an internal data platform. Often this means ingesting all organizational data to a single cloud data store.
- Transforming the raw data inside of that platform into meaningful business concepts, often through the practice of dimensional modeling.
- Assuring the quality, reliability, and timeliness of the data in this platform via automated systems.
- Building or buying tooling to help users of various personas interrogate the data in the data platform to answer their questions about the state of the world.
- Conducting enablement sessions to help users self-serve throughout the parts of this process where their participation is important.
What’s different about analytics engineering vs. the previous approaches to these problems is twofold:
- Software engineering best practices are followed throughout the entire process, resulting in mature, production-grade systems and analytic assets.
- Analytics engineers can run the entire insight-generation process, from beginning to end, without needing to file a ticket with another team.
This world is moving incredibly fast. Cloud data platforms are large and growing, new projects and companies are being started all the time, tons of VC dollars are flowing in, users everywhere are turning onto a new way of working, building their skills, and reshaping their organizations. Best practices are just beginning to take shape. It’s exciting.
And I’ve been covering all of it here, in this newsletter, since the beginning.
Source: The Analytics Engineering Roundup
Web Links
Videos
From Docker to Dagger (w/ Solomon Hykes) The creator of Docker on how containers changed everything
June 22, 2025 (48:49)
By: The Analytics Engineering Podcast
In this season of the Analytics Engineering podcast, Tristan is digging deep into the world of developer tools and databases. There are few more widely used developer tools than Docker. From its launch back in 2013, Docker has completely changed how developers ship applications.
In this episode, Tristan talks to Solomon Hykes, the founder and creator of Docker. They trace Docker’s rise from startup obscurity to becoming foundational infrastructure in modern software development. Solomon explains the technical underpinnings of containerization, the pivotal shift from platform-as-a-service to open-source engine, and why Docker’s developer experience was so revolutionary.
The conversation also dives into his next venture Dagger, and how it aims to solve the messy, overlooked workflows of software delivery. Bonus: Solomon shares how AI agents are reshaping how CI/CD gets done and why the next revolution in DevOps might already be here.
