Managed vs. virtual Iceberg tables

Palantir supports using the Iceberg format, both as managed Iceberg tables and as virtual Iceberg tables.

Managed Iceberg tables are Iceberg tables that are managed by Foundry's Iceberg catalog. Virtual Iceberg tables are virtual tables using external storage and an external Iceberg catalog, such as Unity ↗, Glue ↗, or Polaris ↗.

Storage options

You can choose your preferred storage configuration for Iceberg tables according to the following options:

Palantir support can provide assistance in setting up bring-your-own-bucket storage.

Architecture overview

Below you can see a conceptual diagram of the architecture options for working with Iceberg tables in Foundry, based on the location of the table's storage and the Iceberg catalog responsible for managing it.

Solid lines indicate the relationship between a table and its associated Iceberg catalog and storage location. Note that the dotted lines between tables denote the lack of data copying between the external storage location and the Foundry table.

Support and features

Managed and virtual Iceberg tables both work natively with most core Foundry features.

For managed Iceberg tables, Foundry also administers the table through its implementation of the Iceberg REST catalog. This enables additional functionality in Foundry, such as guided frontends for configuring maintenance operations.