Unevenly Distributed #2: Lakehouses Without Borders — Agnostic Data ft. Viktor Kessler (Co-Founder, Vakamo)
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Sep 15, 2025 Viktor Kessler, Co-founder of Vakamo and expert in data systems, dives into the world of data agnostic lakehouses. He discusses how these architectures enhance flexibility and interoperability, making migration between systems less daunting. The conversation also highlights Iceberg's rising prominence in data storage, offering an open-source alternative. Kessler shares insights on modern data access control and metadata management, stressing the importance of aligning data strategies with business goals to avoid vendor lock-in.
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Open Community Propelled Iceberg
- Iceberg's Apache governance and community-driven development helped it gain broad adoption.
- Viktor views Iceberg's open, community-first path as a key reason it outpaced alternative table formats.
Plan Maintenance Before You Adopt Iceberg
- Plan for table maintenance tasks like compaction, snapshot expiry, and file management before you adopt Iceberg.
- Treat metadata and compaction as operational responsibilities to avoid turning Iceberg into a data swamp.
Integrate Standard Policy Engines
- Use external, standardized policy systems (OpenFGA or OPA) for authorization instead of bundling custom ACLs in the catalog.
- Build the catalog to call an authorizer extension so you can swap or extend policy implementations easily.