AWS on the future of data lakes, metadata and AI innovation

The choice between using a data lake or a data warehouse often depends on the specific needs of an organization. However, with advancements in technologies like Apache Iceberg and improvements in metadata capabilities, data lakes are becoming more competitive with data warehouses. Open table formats (OTF) allow organizations to treat large datasets stored in S3 buckets like databases, enabling efficient data processing at scale. Data lakes have evolved significantly, offering improved storage and management capabilities that make them ideal for businesses handling a variety of data types. Effective metadata management has become critical as data lakes evolve, providing functionalities like time travel, schema evolution, and enhanced querying capabilities. Metadata will play a crucial role in AI, ML, and GenAI applications, with new variations of catalogs emerging to help organizations stay ahead of the competition and future-proof their insights.