Snowflake integrates Apache Iceberg to enhance data agility

Snowflake has announced the introduction of its core capabilities to Apache Iceberg tables, an open table format noted for its rapid growth.

Apache Iceberg is designed to help organisations activate data more quickly with zero data movement and open interoperability.

This enhancement is intended to facilitate Snowflake customers in accelerating their open lakehouse strategies, thereby improving access to data and enabling comprehensive analysis in both open and managed environments. This initiative aims to expedite the development, scaling, and sharing of advanced insights and AI-powered applications.

The new functionality gives Snowflake customers access to the flexible and interoperable properties of Iceberg while benefiting from Snowflake's established platform known for performance, security, and data sharing capabilities. This advancement seeks to mitigate the common trade-offs organisations face between integrated data platforms and open, interoperable formats.

"The future of data is open, but it also needs to be easy," said Christian Kleinerman, EVP of Product at Snowflake.

"Customers shouldn't have to choose between open formats and best-in-class performance or business continuity. With Snowflake's latest Iceberg tables innovations, customers can work with their open data exactly as they would with data stored in the Snowflake platform, all while removing complexity and preserving Snowflake's enterprise-grade performance and security."

Snowflake's support for Apache Iceberg tables promises to enhance multiple aspects of data management.

For Lakehouse Analytics, users can employ the same compute engine on Iceberg tables as with Snowflake's native tables. Upcoming features like the Search Optimisation Service and Query Acceleration Service are intended to boost query performance on Iceberg tables.

The company is also focusing on security and governance, aiming to provide seamless protection for open lakehouse environments, helping customers maintain compliance with built-in business continuity and disaster recovery capabilities. Snowflake's replication and syncing extensions to Iceberg tables are expected to help organisations quickly restore data in the event of a failure or disaster.

For data sharing, Snowflake extends its secure technology to Iceberg tables to facilitate easier sharing, distribution, and monetisation of data.

The company's engagement with open-source projects, including contributions to Apache Iceberg, emphasises Snowflake's commitment to enhancing data interoperability and transparency.

This relationship is underscored by contributions to other projects like Apache NiFi, Apache Polaris, Modin, Streamlit, and TruEra, each playing a role in Snowflake's strategy toward open data ecosystems.

Illumina and other prominent companies, such as Komodo Health, Medidata, and WHOOP, have expressed support for the integration of Iceberg. Stephen Horn, Staff Data Solutions Architect at Illumina, stated, "By running analytics on Apache Iceberg tables with Snowflake, we've unlocked flexibility and performance in managing our manufacturing system data at scale.:

"This open architecture allows us to seamlessly analyse vast datasets while maintaining cost efficiency, delivering faster insights to improve manufacturing processes and faster access to critical data for self-serve. Snowflake's support for Iceberg has not only improved our data agility but also reinforced the industry-wide push toward open standards, ensuring that innovation in genomics remains accessible, scalable, and impactful for the entire scientific community."

Laurent Bride, Chief Technology Officer at Komodo Health, commented, "At Komodo Health, our mission is to reduce the global burden of disease through our comprehensive Healthcare Map, platform, tooling, and analytics solutions. Apache Iceberg and open source catalogs like Polaris Catalog have been transformative in helping us create actionable and governed insights from complex healthcare data."

"Open table formats provide the flexibility, interoperability, and enhanced data governance we need, while Snowflake's unparalleled performance capabilities ensure we can scale these insights effectively with maximum efficiency. Together, this powerful technology foundation empowers us to make healthcare data more accessible and actionable, ultimately improving patient outcomes across the healthcare ecosystem."

Tom Doyle, Chief Technology Officer at Medidata, said, "Innovations like Apache Iceberg are critical for Medidata and drive usability for our products like Clinical Data Studio to help our customers achieve faster, more flexible, and simpler data operations."

"A unified data layer is the foundation for our AI powered platform. Open, interoperable data standards, particularly through Snowflake's robust open catalog, Iceberg tables, and data collaboration technologies, will further advance our data strategy and propel our industry."

At WHOOP, Matt Luizzi, Senior Director of Business Analytics, emphasised, "Data interoperability and flexibility are essential to delivering accurate, real-time insights to our customers."

"The vendor-neutral design of Apache Iceberg and Apache Polaris Catalog ensures we can seamlessly activate diverse data sources without having to copy it or get locked into a single ecosystem."