Lakehouse Context Layers with Atlan and Iceberg v3

This article discusses the gap between technical table formats like Apache Iceberg v3 and business meaning, introducing context layers as a solution. It details how Atlan's active metadata platform and Snowflake Horizon provide semantic modeling, metadata management, and governance to enrich raw data. The article highlights Iceberg v3 features like deletion vectors and row lineage, and explains how context layers enable AI agents to understand column meanings and relationships. It covers hybrid adoption patterns, the Polaris catalog, and a 2025 ACL study showing LLM accuracy drops on enterprise data without context. The content is technical, focusing on IT/technology topics such as data engineering, metadata federation, and AI-driven data governance.