Apache Iceberg: What It Is and Why Everyone’s Talking About It.

Tim Berglund explains the history, architecture, and inner workings of the Apache Iceberg table format and its integration with streaming data.

More Info: cnfl.io/4i2M17x | You’ve probably heard about Apache Iceberg™—after all, it’s been getting a lot of buzz. But what actually is it? And why are so many people excited about using it with streaming data? In this lightboard, Tim Berglund breaks it all down in a way that makes sense, even if you’re new to Iceberg. He walks through the history that led to Iceberg’s emergence, explains how it works under the hood, and shares how it fits into the bigger picture of modern data systems and streaming data. He also reveals something we’ve been working on at Confluent called TableFlow—a way to make your Apache Kafka® topic data accessible as an Iceberg table in your data lake, without needing to bolt together a bunch of different tools. If you're the kind of person who likes querying data lakes and streaming systems, you’ll probably want to check this out. Whether you're deep into data infrastructure or just curious about what's next, this is a super approachable intro to a technology that’s becoming a big deal. RELATED RESOURCES ► TableFlow Announcement Blog: cnfl.io/4j26B9y ► Try Confluent Cloud for Free: cnfl.io/4ibAYcl Discount code: CONFLUENTDEV1 CHAPTERS 00:00 - The Emergence of Iceberg: A Brief History 01:00 - The Rise of the Data Lake 02:48 - Why Iceberg needed to exist 03:48 - Iceberg’s Architecture: How It Works in the Modern Streaming World 10:27 - Iceberg’s Infrastructure: What is It Made Of? 11:59 - Tableflow: Kafka Topics as Iceberg Tables – CONNECT Subscribe, if you dare: youtube.com/@ConfluentDeveloper?sub_confirmation=1 Community Slack: confluentcommunity.slack.com X: x.com/confluentinc Linkedin: linkedin.com/company/confluent GitHub: github.com/confluentinc Site: developer.confluent.io ABOUT CONFLUENT DEVELOPER Confluent Developer provides comprehensive resources for developers looking to learn about Apache Kafka®, Apache Flink®, Confluent Cloud, Confluent Platform, and any other technology related to the broader Data Streaming Platform. Content on Confluent Developer includes courses, getting started guides, topical deep-dives, patterns, tutorials, and listings of community events. Learn more at developer.confluent.io. #apacheiceberg #tableflow #apachekafka #kafka #confluent