Zero-copy, zero contest Comparing ADBC performance against the alternatives on two Arrow-native systems: BigQuery and DuckDB

columnar.tech/blog/zero-co...

An abstract hyperspace warp image inspired by the comedic "going plaid" effect from the 1980s cult film "Spaceballs".

The fastest operation is the one you don’t have to do.

When a database natively supports @arrow.apache.org, 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 👇

A Deep Dive into ADBC Driver Optimization What it takes to achieve good performance across different data systems

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-dr...

Announcing dbc 0.2.0 The second release of dbc brings new drivers, pre-releases, private registries, and a seamless experience for humans, tools, and agents.

For more details and installation instructions, see the dbc 0.2.0 announcement blog post: columnar.tech/blog/announc...

Terminal-style image showing the command `dbc install` typed in a command line box, with a colorful swirling list of database and data warehouse names in the background, illustrating that dbc can install ADBC drivers for many different systems.

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 👇

Docs for the Databricks ADBC driver are available at docs.adbc-drivers.org/drivers/data...

Don't have dbc installed? See instructions at docs.columnar.tech/dbc

Fetch query results without ODBC / JDBC bottlenecks. The new ADBC driver for Databricks is now available in early release. Install it with dbc.

Columnar Current Columnar-related news, posts, and talks from around the web

Stay up to date on modern data connectivity.

The Current page on the Columnar website is a curated feed of news, posts, and talks from across the web.

👉 columnar.tech/current

10 Predictions for Data Infrastructure in 2026 What we see coming in the year ahead

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-pr...

ADBC driver management with dbc - Cheatsheet

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 t.co/JcD9ElEwqS

Using ADBC in Java New JNI bindings bring ADBC drivers to Java applications

columnar.tech/blog/adbc-java

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 @arrow.apache.org format. Read the new blog post from @ian.columnar.tech and David Li for examples and perf comparisons vs. JDBC. Link in comments👇

GitHub - columnar-tech/adbc-quickstarts: Simple examples showing how to use ADBC with various databases, query engines, and data platforms Simple examples showing how to use ADBC with various databases, query engines, and data platforms - columnar-tech/adbc-quickstarts

Looking for the fastest way to learn ADBC (@arrow.apache.org Database Connectivity)? Check out the ADBC Quickstarts repo for simple runnable examples in C++, Go, Python, R, and Rust: github.com/columnar-tec...

Apache Arrow's Final Frontier: Replacing Outdated Database Drivers A new startup, Columnar, looks to streamline the copying of tabular data across systems, using Apache Arrow and the ADBC API.

A new startup, @columnar.tech, looks to streamline the copying of tabular data across systems, using @arrow.apache.org and the ADBC API.

By @joabj.bsky.social

Announcing Columnar Back to the future of data connectivity

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 @arrow.apache.org. Learn more 👇

Where We’re Going, We Don’t Need Rows: Columnar Data Connectivity with Apache Arrow ADBC (Ian Cook) YouTube video by CMU Database Group

ODBC is getting tired. It just 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 @arrow.apache.org. Watch my new talk from the @db.cs.cmu.edu seminar: youtu.be/TjlmNGNx77E

[Future Data] Where We're Going, We Don't Need Rows: Columnar Data Connectivity with ADBC - Carnegie Mellon Database Group ADBC (Arrow Database Connectivity) is Apache Arrow’s answer to ODBC and JDBC:... Read More +

Today's Future Data Systems Seminar Speaker: Ian Cook (@ian.columnar.tech) will present @columnar.tech's work on Apache Arrow's 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/futur...

In September the @columnar.tech crew are headed to PyData Paris 2025 and the first ever Apache Arrow Summit. The organizer @quantstack.bsky.social is a dedicated supporter of @arrow.apache.org. We’re delighted to be sponsoring the event.

New post by Pedro Holanda, Ian Cook, Dewey Dunnington and Bryce Mecum:

Arrow IPC Support in DuckDB

This blog post introduces the new arrow community extension, which boosts interoperability by allowing to consume/produce data through the Arrow IPC Serialization Format.

duckdb.org/2025/05/23/a...