Apache Iceberg gained significant momentum last week as leading data warehousing and analytics vendors rolled out new features supporting the open-source table format. AWS, Cloudera, Google, and Snowflake each announced initiatives to enhance their integration with Apache Iceberg, highlighting its growing acceptance in the big data ecosystem.
Apache Iceberg is facing off against other contenders like Databricks’ Delta Lake and Apache Hudi in the race to become the industry standard for open table formats. These formats allow users to query data using any analytics engine without physically moving it, a flexibility highly valued in modern data environments. For instance, Google has introduced BigQuery tables for Apache Iceberg, providing a managed storage engine compatible with Iceberg, while AWS’s Redshift now supports Iceberg for secure data sharing in Amazon S3.
Cloudera and Snowflake are also betting on Iceberg to simplify data integration. Cloudera has extended its Open Data Lakehouse interoperability, integrating with Snowflake to enable customers to access Cloudera’s Data Lakehouse via Iceberg’s REST Catalog. The focus is on reducing complexity and cutting costs, a sentiment echoed by Cloudera’s Chief Strategy Officer, Abhas Ricky.
While most major vendors have jumped on the Apache Iceberg bandwagon, some exceptions remain. Microsoft, for instance, continues to support Delta Lake as its primary format for Azure, citing market demand. Databricks, meanwhile, is looking to merge the best aspects of Iceberg and Delta Lake, aiming for a single standard in the future with its UniForm product, which promises cross-compatibility between data formats.
The push towards adopting Apache Iceberg shows that the “table format wars” are far from over, but momentum is building. As more contributors from major tech firms back Iceberg, its future as a de facto standard in the data warehousing landscape seems increasingly likely.
Sources include: The Register (https://theregister.com).
