Ian Cook @ianmcook

Co-Founder and CEO at @columnar_tech | Making data interchange faster with @ApacheArrow linkedin.com/in/ianmcook Chapel Hill Joined March 2009

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Ian Cook @ianmcook

4 weeks ago

columnar.tech/blog/databow/

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📣 Introducing databow: one command-line tool to query them all, built with Rust and ADBC. Query any SQL source that has an ADBC driver (30+ and counting) right from your terminal with one simple CLI. To install 👉 uv tool install databow Link to announcement in the comments👇

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Columnar @columnar_tech

2 months ago

This week we released version 0.3.0 of dbc, the package manager for modern database drivers. This release makes dbc: 🧩 Easier to embed inside apps 🤖 Easier to run with AI agents ⚙️ Easier to set up in CI workflows Read the announcement and install or upgrade 👇

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Columnar @columnar_tech

2 months ago

AI coding tools speed up how we build data-driven apps. But legacy database access patterns slow us down. Join us for a live hands-on workshop to learn how ADBC makes database access faster, more portable, and better suited to analytical and agentic work. Sign up at link below👇

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Columnar @columnar_tech

3 months ago

We heard you: ADBC is great, but you need it on mainframes. Introducing ADBC for COBOL. The same connectors that work with Python, Rust, and Go now work with a language originally designed for punch cards. Blog post and repo in the comments.

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Columnar @columnar_tech

3 months ago

The fastest operation is the one you don’t have to do. When a database natively supports @ApacheArrow, ADBC can speed up fetching and ingestion by eliminating costly row/column conversions. How much faster is it in practice? We ran some benchmarks to find out. Link below 👇

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Columnar @columnar_tech

4 months ago

This week we shipped 4 updated ADBC drivers with major performance gains: ⏱️ 3× faster queries (BigQuery, MSSQL) ⚡ >30× faster ingest (MySQL, Trino) How we achieved it, what’s next, and what vendors can do to unlock even more speed: columnar.tech/blog/adbc-driv…

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Columnar @columnar_tech

4 months ago

This week we shipped the second release of dbc, the command-line tool for installing and managing ADBC drivers: 📦 More drivers (Oracle & Teradata) 🔐 Private registries 🛠️ Easier to embed in other tools 🧑‍💻 Better human UX 🤖 Better agent experience Full details in comments 👇

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Columnar @columnar_tech

5 months ago

Fetch query results without ODBC / JDBC bottlenecks. The new ADBC driver for @databricks is now in early release. Install it with dbc. Details in comments.

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Columnar @columnar_tech

6 months ago

Data plumbing has never mattered more. From the maturation of open standards like ADBC and Iceberg to the infrastructure needed for agentic workflows, here are our 10 predictions for 2026 🔮 columnar.tech/blog/2026-pred…

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Columnar @columnar_tech

6 months ago

dbc is a command-line tool that makes installing ADBC drivers 10× easier. Haven’t tried it yet? Get started with our new cheatsheet. 📥Download it at docs.columnar.tech/dbc/getting_st…

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Ian Cook @ianmcook

7 months ago

Accurate reasoning over tabular data is a major area of weakness for LLMs today. @wesmckinn ran some simple tests that show LLMs demonstrating “unconscious incompetence” on a simple analytics task.

Wes McKinney @wesmckinn

7 months ago

New blog post: "Can LLMs give us AGI if they are bad at arithmetic?" wesmckinney.com/blog/llms-arit…

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Columnar @columnar_tech

7 months ago

ADBC drivers in @java? Yes. The latest release of ADBC adds a JNI layer that lets Java apps load drivers, run queries, and fetch results fast in @ApacheArrow format. Read the new blog post from @lidavidm and @ianmcook for examples and perf comparisons vs. JDBC. Link in comments👇

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Ian Cook @ianmcook

8 months ago

How to ADBC? → columnar.tech/dbc

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Ian Cook @ianmcook

8 months ago

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The New Stack @thenewstack

8 months ago

A new startup, @columnar_tech, looks to streamline the copying of tabular data across systems, using @ApacheArrow and the ADBC API. By @Joab_Jackson thenewstack.io/apache-arrows-…

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Ian Cook @ianmcook

8 months ago

The future of data connectivity is columnar. Today we launched @columnar_tech to accelerate the shift from slow, row-oriented APIs like ODBC and JDBC to >10x faster alternatives powered by @ApacheArrow. Learn more 👉 columnar.tech/blog/announcin…⚡️

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Bessemer @BessemerVP

8 months ago

Data and AI are evolving fast, but much of today’s infrastructure still runs on standards from the 90s. @columnar_tech, from the team behind Apache Arrow, is bringing an Arrow-native protocol (ADBC) that moves data 10–100× faster across systems like Snowflake and DuckDB. We're excited to lead Columnar's $4M seed round. Read the full Q&A to learn more: bessemervp.team/47d8gWk

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Ian Cook @ianmcook

8 months ago

ODBC is getting tired. It can't keep up with the fast new kids in the data world these days. The next generation is ready to take the torch. Meet ADBC, a fast, modern data connectivity standard built on @ApacheArrow. Watch my talk from the @CMUDB seminar: youtu.be/TjlmNGNx77E

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CMU Database Group @CMUDB

8 months ago

Today's Future Data Systems Seminar Speaker: Ian Cook (@ianmcook) will present @columnar_tech's work on @ApacheArrow database connectivity API (ADBC). ADBC is available in modern DBMSs. Zoom talk open to public at 4:30pm ET. YouTube video available after: db.cs.cmu.edu/events/futured…