Alex Merced • 4/29/2026

What Are Lakehouse Catalogs? The Role of Catalogs in Apache Iceberg

This article is part 7 of a 15-part Apache Iceberg Masterclass, focusing on lakehouse catalogs. It details what a catalog does—storing metadata pointers, managing namespaces, and enforcing access control—and introduces the REST Catalog Protocol for multi-engine coordination. The article covers the catalog landscape, including open source (e.g., Hive, Nessie) and managed catalogs (e.g., AWS Glue, Snowflake), and provides guidance on choosing a catalog. It emphasizes that catalogs are essential for atomic commits, governance, and portability in modern data lakehouse architectures.

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#Metadata Management #Apache Iceberg #Lakehouse Catalog