3 Preparing for your move to Apache Iceberg
This chapter covers
- Performing an infrastructure audit
- Engaging stakeholders to surface technical and organizational needs
- Documenting current tooling, storage systems, and governance practices
- Converting audit findings into prioritized, actionable requirements
- Considerations for storage, ingestion, catalog, federation, and data consumption
Implementing Apache Iceberg is not simply a technical upgrade. It's a shift in how your organization handles data, from ingestion and storage to governance and analytics. While Chapter 2 gave you hands-on exposure to Iceberg’s capabilities, moving to production requires more than experimentation. It demands a structured understanding of your current environment.
Every organization’s data landscape is unique. You may be using different file formats, legacy ETL tools, or navigating region-specific compliance constraints, and attempting to integrate Iceberg into this environment without first conducting an audit. This approach risks introducing inefficiencies, unexpected costs, or governance gaps. A thoughtful audit helps you avoid these pitfalls by turning a broad set of options into a focused strategy.