Databricks: What Is That?

For a long time, Python + pandas was more than enough for me.

Read some data, process it, send/ save the result somewhere.

Simple. Familiar. Productive.

Until one day… it wasn’t.

–

My Usual Flow: Python + Pandas

My default approach was always the same:

1. Use pandas to read data
2. Apply business logic
3. Push results to another system

It worked well, especially for:

• Small to medium datasets
• One-off jobs
• Quick experiments

If you’ve written backend scripts or data utilities in Python, this probably feels familiar.

–

When Pandas Starts to Hurt

As data grew, so did the problems:

• 🚨 Data no longer fits nicely into memory
• 🚨 Scripts become slower as data grows
• 🚨 Running multiple jobs at the same time becomes painful
• 🚨 “Which machine should this run on?” suddenly matters
• 🚨 Sharing scripts with teammates isn’t straightforward

At some point, you realize:

Pandas is great — but it’s still single-machine thinking.

This is where Databricks entered my life.

–

Enter Databricks (Without the Hype)

I didn’t move to Databricks because I wanted to “do big data”.

I moved because I wanted:

• To keep writing Python
• To stop worrying about machine size
• To process larger datasets safely
• To schedule jobs without duct tape

Databricks is essentially:

• A managed platform for Apache Spark
• With notebooks
• With scheduling
• With collaboration built in

You write code, Databricks worries about the rest.

–

A Typical Flow (From My Actual Work)

Here’s what my day-to-day flow looks like now:

1. 📚 Data already exists in the Databricks Catalog
2. 📓 I create a Python notebook
3. 🔄 Read data using Spark
4. 🧠 Apply business logic
5. 📤 Publish results to SQS
6. ⏰ Schedule it to run every 3 hours

No servers to provision. No EC2 sizing debates.

–

Reading Data with Spark (Feels Familiar)

Instead of Pandas, I now use PySpark:

df = spark.read.table("catalog_name.schema_name.source_table")

Under the hood, Spark:

• Splits data
• Processes it in parallel
• Handles datasets much larger than memory

–

Doing Business Logic (Still Just Python)

from pyspark.sql.functions import col

processed_df = (
    df
    .filter(col("status") == "ACTIVE")
    .withColumn("total_amount", col("price") * col("quantity"))
)

–

The rest

After processing, I can:

• Write results back to tables
• Send data to external systems (like SQS)
• Schedule notebooks to run automatically

–

Why Spark Beats Pandas Here (Simply Put)

–

I:

• Still write Python
• Still think in business logic

Just stopped worrying about scale and infrastructure

Databricks + Spark let me grow without rewriting how I think.

If you’re comfortable with Python and Pandas, this transition is far less scary than it sounds.