In this episode of the Ardan Labs Podcast, Bill Kennedy talks with Catherine Johnson, VP of Global Solutions Engineering at Hydrolix, about her career journey through data management, scalability, and innovation. With a background spanning leadership roles at Hydrolix, Grafana Labs, and Oracle, Catherine shares insights into balancing engineering, entrepreneurship, and mentorship. She discusses the evolution of real-time data systems, the economics of storage, and the importance of data-driven decision-making. Catherine also opens up about taking a break from tech to teach dance, and how her passion for innovation and continuous learning fuels her leadership today.00:00 Introduction03:03 Data Management and Scalability05:58 Explosion of Data and Storage Needs09:01 Real-Time Data in Business14:49 Economics of Data Storage20:41 Education and Early Career31:09 Career Transitions and Growth46:10 Teaching Dance and Finding Balance53:16 Returning to Tech at Oracle01:08:10 Joining Elastic and Facing Burnout01:15:45 Leadership and Innovation at Hydrolix01:27:07 AI in Tech and Its LimitationsConnect with Catherine: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/catjopdx/Mentioned in this Episode:Hydrolix: https://hydrolix.io/Want more from Ardan Labs? You can learn Go, Kubernetes, Docker & more through our video training, live events, or through our blog!Online Courses : https://ardanlabs.com/education/ Live Events : https://www.ardanlabs.com/live-training-events/ Blog : https://www.ardanlabs.com/blog Github : https://github.com/ardanlabs