Analytic databases are quietly going through an unprecedented transformation. Open table formats, like Apache Iceberg, enable multiple query engines to share one central copy of a table. This will fundamentally change the data industry, by freeing data that’s being held hostage by siloed data vendors. This talk will cover the origins and basics of open table formats and show how new capabilities are shaping the future of both open source compute projects and commercial data warehouses alike. It will include key advice for building data architecture that makes data more accessible and useful while avoiding lock-in.
What's the focus of your work these days?
I've been spending a lot of time in the Apache Iceberg community working toward more standards that help query engines and data frameworks interoperate. There's lots of exciting work going on, including views, table encryption, and standardizing a catalog protocol.
What's the motivation for your talk at QCon London 2024?
I think that the analytic data space is going through an unprecedented transformation now that Iceberg and similar projects enable reliable shared data storage. That is going to cause many changes in the next 5-10 years and I'm excited to work with the community to start solving the new challenges and problems.
How would you describe your main persona and target audience for this session?
This is a fairly high level talk that most people in the data space should find interesting. It is about how data architecture is evolving and isn't a deeply technical subject.
Is there anything specific that you'd like people to walk away with after watching your session?
I want everyone to think about data architecture differently: what should be centralized vs specialized? I think this question is going to be critical over the next few years as solutions change.
Speaker
Ryan Blue
Co-Founder and CEO @Tabular, Co-creator of Apache Iceberg
Ryan Blue is the co-creator and PMC chair of Apache Iceberg and co-founder of Tabular. He is a member of the Apache Software Foundation, and is a PMC member of Apache Parquet and Avro. He loves building things.
