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Blog Post
Introducing IBM watsonx.data Developer Edition
A free, developer-focused lakehouse environment that lets you explore, experiment, and prototype data and AI applications quickly
If you’ve tried setting up a data lakehouse environment, you know it’s not always easy. With complex infrastructure setup, compliance requirements, and dependencies, it can take days before you run your first query.
With IBM watsonx.data Developer Edition, announced at TechXchange 2025, we’re making that process simple:
- One-click installation of watsonx.data and all necessary components.
- Get a lakehouse environment, free forever
- Start exploring right away
No license keys. No trial limits. Just a clean, developer-first experience.
Why we built watsonx.data Developer Edition
Developers and data professionals told us the same thing: experimenting with lakehouses shouldn’t require an enterprise-scale setup. Developers and data professionals want to learn, test ideas, and build proofs of concept without worrying about compliance or setting up complex infrastructure.
watsonx.data Developer Edition is our answer. It’s a desktop app that runs locally with everything pre-configured, so you can get straight to querying data, cleaning datasets, and prototyping AI applications.
What’s inside
watsonx.data Developer Edition provides:
- Multiple lakehouse engines such as Presto and Spark to explore different approaches.
- Sample datasets to experiment instantly with no required setup.
- Local data support so that you can use your own data safely without compliance worries.
- Documentation and watsonx.data community support to help you from installation to advanced usage.
Because it’s free forever, you can learn and build at your own pace.
Development sandbox to enterprise scale
watsonx.data Developer Edition is your personal lakehouse lab. When you’re ready to move to production, the full watsonx.data platform provides the enterprise-grade scalability, governance, and performance that is needed to take your prototypes live.
Get started
Download IBM watsonx.data Developer Edition and start experimenting today. It’s quick, free, and built with developers in mind.
Join the webinar to discover watsonx.data Developer Edition.