How VantAI accelerated insight discovery with Deepnote
Interactive plotting, directly connected data sets, zero-latency environment setup, and clever input widgets bridge the gap between a no-code GUI app for non-coders and a full-fledged programming environment for our engineers. More and more, the VantAI team is able to move discussions around abstract ideas and complex data out of presentation tools (e.g., PowerPoint) and into direct implementations in code.
Zachary Carpenter
CEO
Challenge
VantAI wanted to improve velocity across its organization.
It needed an easy way for technical team members to collaborate on projects without wasting valuable time on data connection and environment configuration, as well as a user-friendly system for helping non-technical stakeholders explore data and bring new ideas to the table.
Solution
With Deepnote, VantAI is able to prepare prototypes and experiments as projects — notebooks, scripts, and other assets required for analysis — that can be stored, organized, and shared in a dedicated workspace for fast and easy collaboration.
We're working in uncharted territory and our work is highly R&D focused. Machine learning is a very empirical discipline, so iteration speed is everything. Working in Deepnote is like code review and rapid prototyping at the same time, saving valuable time in the iteration cycles. But as opposed to code review via GitHub, you have direct access to the runtime and program state, which makes understanding complex models much easier and leads to much more spontaneous creative ideas.
Luca Naef
CTO
Strategy
VantAI’s algorithms and data sets come with a link to a Deepnote project based on a private Docker image that contains all dependencies and tools for data exploration. Environments only need to be set up or updated once, instead of for each user.
Data sources are seamlessly integrated with each project, eliminating the need for team members to download data to their own computers. And since the notebooks act as interactive documentation — complete with rich text and charts — non-technical team members can quickly get up to speed and stay up to date as projects evolve.
Projects have a shared program state where variables and program objects are visible in the same way to everyone, so referencing or explicitly printing the state of a variable is instantaneous. With team members working together directly in code, there’s no need to infer the program state.
Since Deepnote is fully collaborative, team members from diverse disciplines can add comments and edit code in real time based on their workspace permissions. This level of interactivity makes brainstorming sessions much more productive.
Outcome
VantAI can now iterate much faster. With help from Deepnote’s interactive and frictionless collaboration features, technical and non-technical team members alike are able to work together to unlock new levels of creativity. The company can spend less time dealing with technical limitations and more time helping to solve some of the world’s most important problems.