Alex Merced • 10/17/2025

Building a Universal Lakehouse Catalog - Beyond Iceberg Tables

This article analyzes the challenge of creating a universal catalog for data lakehouses that goes beyond Apache Iceberg tables. It examines two potential solutions: an implementation-first approach using projects like Apache Polaris, and an API-first approach extending the Iceberg REST catalog spec. The piece discusses the trade-offs in flexibility, governance, and ecosystem alignment for managing various data formats like Parquet, Delta, and Hudi with consistent governance.

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#Data Lakehouse #Table Format #REST Catalog