Part 2 Designing your Iceberg architecture
Every Iceberg deployment is shaped by the unique needs of the organization adopting it. In this part of the book, we'll break down the architecture of an Apache Iceberg lakehouse into discrete layers and explore the choices available in each one.
Chapter 4 begins with a structured audit process for understanding your current platform and stakeholder needs. Chapters 5 through 9 examine each layer in depth, from storage and ingestion to catalogs, federation, and consumption, providing you with the tools to make practical design decisions. Whether you're replacing legacy systems or building from scratch, this part will help you translate goals into architecture.
Keep in mind that SQL and Python code are executed after your system is operationalized, so these chapters focus on selecting the components to operationalize. We’ll have more code examples in part 3, along with a Python appendix.