Portable data lake: A development environment for data lakes

A portable data lake is a development environment that combines the benefits of data ponds, which enable fast local experimentation and development, with the governance and scalability required for production environments. It aims to address the challenges faced by data professionals in setting up local environments for large-scale data work, such as data access, scalability, and governance issues. The proposed solution, a pip installable platform called a portable data lake, integrates features like integrated caching, governed pipelines, unified data access, and fast-track to production, ensuring robust governance while enabling seamless collaboration across teams. It leverages open standards like Delta Lake, Parquet, and Iceberg to provide efficiency gains and unlock new development paradigms in data engineering.