Ian Cook

Co-Founder and CEO at @columnar_tech | Making data interchange faster with @ApacheArrow

[ClickHouse @ClickHouseDB]

We just shipped our official ADBC driver, in partnership with @columnar_tech.

https://t.co/vOsgIaxnTx

One command installs a signed binary, and it speaks Apache Arrow natively, so results move from ClickHouse into your app with zero conversion.

Ruby, R, and C get real ClickHouse access for the first time.

[Ian Cook @ianmcook]

https://t.co/AZcfWOrHxd

[Ian Cook @ianmcook]

📣 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👇

[Columnar @columnar_tech]

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 👇

[Columnar @columnar_tech]

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👇

[Columnar @columnar_tech]

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.

[Columnar @columnar_tech]

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 👇

[Columnar @columnar_tech]

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: https://t.co/lnu6lHgcxq

[Columnar @columnar_tech]

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 👇

[Columnar @columnar_tech]

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.

[Columnar @columnar_tech]

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 🔮

https://t.co/ogOdNkqiyO

[Columnar @columnar_tech]

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 https://t.co/JcD9ElEwqS

[Ian Cook @ianmcook]

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]

New blog post: "Can LLMs give us AGI if they are bad at arithmetic?"

https://t.co/WQywPkgFQo

[Columnar @columnar_tech]

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👇

[Ian Cook @ianmcook]

How to ADBC? → https://t.co/G7dB3anpXT

[The New Stack @thenewstack]

A new startup, @columnar_tech, looks to streamline the copying of tabular data across systems, using @ApacheArrow and the ADBC API.

By @Joab_Jackson https://t.co/5A6s97AM15

[Ian Cook @ianmcook]

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 👉 https://t.co/RWMK5bRLLo⚡️

[Bessemer @BessemerVP]

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: https://t.co/UScpMdOJbv

[Ian Cook @ianmcook]

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: https://t.co/OvNBmXXNf4