Vendor-neutral reference

The open
lakehouse

A data architecture that stores data in open file and table formats on commodity object storage, so that any compliant engine can read and write it without vendor lock-in.

Start with the definition See the architecture

Reference entries: 201
Architecture layers: 9
Comparisons: 3

The stack, one layer at a time

An open lakehouse is assembled from layers, each with one job and several implementations. Any one of them can be replaced without disturbing the others, which is the entire point of the architecture.

Start here

Four pages that cover the whole subject, in the order they make sense.

01 What it is The definition, the three claims inside the term, and what it replaced 02 Principles Five commitments that make an architecture open, each with a test you can run 03 Architecture Every layer, the options at each, and where the clean model blurs 04 History Why the architecture is shaped this way, one failure at a time

The choices, side by side

Each layer has several viable options. These comparisons lead with the table.

All comparisons

foundation Lakehouse vs warehouse vs data lake A data lake gives you cheap storage without guarantees, a warehouse gives you guarantees without engine choice, and a lakehouse adds the guarantees to the lake so you keep both. table Iceberg vs Delta Lake vs Hudi vs Paimon Iceberg has the widest multi-engine support, Delta is strongest inside the Databricks ecosystem, Hudi is built around upserts and incremental reads, and Paimon targets streaming-first workloads. catalog Comparing lakehouse catalogs The catalog choice is mostly a governance decision: all of them can point engines at tables, but they differ sharply in how they handle permissions, credential vending, and whether their API is open enough to swap later.

Look something up

201 in-depth entries, each mapped to the layer it belongs to, plus a one-line glossary for when that is all you need.

Browse the library

Reference library Full entries, several thousand words each, grouped by layer Glossary Every term defined in one line, on a single page FAQ Direct answers to the questions that come up most

Implementation reading

Written by vendors, listed here because the technical content is useful. Nothing on this site is a recommendation to buy anything.

More reading, including independent sources, is collected in the blog roll, video roll, and book roll.