Alex Merced — Developer and technical writer sharing in-depth insights on data engineering, Apache Iceberg, data lakehouse architectures, Python tooling, and modern analytics platforms, with a strong focus on practical, hands-on learning.
388 articles from this blog
A comprehensive directory of Apache Iceberg resources, including tutorials, guides, and educational materials for data engineers and developers.
Explores how combining data lakehouse, virtualization, and mesh architectures with Dremio solves modern data scaling and silo challenges.
A comprehensive guide to building interactive data applications using the Streamlit framework, covering setup, visualization, ML integration, and deployment.
A comprehensive guide to Docker Compose, covering file structure, service configuration, networking, volumes, and best practices for multi-container applications.
A comprehensive guide to string handling in Rust, covering types, conversions, operations, and performance best practices.
An introductory guide to Rust, covering its key features like memory safety, ownership, and setup for developers new to the language.
A hands-on tutorial for building a Data Lakehouse on your laptop using Apache Iceberg, Spark, Nessie, Minio, and Dremio.
Explains why data professionals should adopt Dremio and Apache Iceberg for flexible, high-performance data lakehouse architecture.
Explores five key trends shaping the data lakehouse architecture, including storage evolution, table formats, and catalog competition.
A guide on using the alexmerced/datanotebook Docker image for a quick data notebook environment with pre-installed libraries like pandas, Polars, and PySpark.
Explains how Apache Iceberg uses delete files for efficient row-level data deletions without rewriting entire datasets.
Explains the role and structure of Apache Iceberg manifest files, key metadata components for tracking data files and optimizing queries in data lakehouses.
Explains the role and structure of the Apache Iceberg Manifest List file in managing table snapshots and optimizing data lakehouse queries.
Explains the critical role and structure of the metadata.json file in Apache Iceberg, the open-source table format for data lakehouses.
Explains the purpose and limitations of the Apache Iceberg REST Catalog specification for standardizing table operations.
Explains how Apache Iceberg brings ACID transaction guarantees to data lakes, enabling reliable data operations on open storage.
An introduction to data lakehouses, explaining what they are, why they're used, and how to migrate to this modern data architecture.
Explores Polaris, an open-source catalog service for managing Apache Iceberg tables in data lakehouses, covering its architecture, entities, and security.
Explains how Apache Iceberg's design ensures data reliability, atomic operations, and serializable isolation for large-scale data lakehouses.
A list of upcoming tech talks and events by Alex Merced, focusing on Apache Iceberg, data lakehouses, and data engineering topics.
