Unity Catalog and the next era of Apache Iceberg

Tushar_Parekar — Fri, 29 May 2026 16:19:46 GMT

Databricks is expanding Apache Iceberg support in Unity Catalog with GA for Managed Iceberg, Iceberg v3, and Foreign Iceberg, plus new capabilities for open sharing, federation, and governance across engines.

Key highlights

Managed Iceberg is GA in Unity Catalog – Create, govern, optimize, and share Iceberg tables in Unity Catalog with built-in performance tuning.
Iceberg v3 is now GA – Use Iceberg v3 features like deletion vectors, VARIANT, and row tracking across managed and foreign tables.
More open access across catalogs and engines – Query Iceberg data across external catalogs with open APIs and secure credential vending.
Open, zero-copy sharing for Iceberg – Share live Iceberg data securely through Delta Sharing, with foreign Iceberg sharing also in Public Preview.
One governance layer across engines – Extend fine-grained governance to external Iceberg engines with cross-engine ABAC and broader federation support.

In the full post, you’ll see how Databricks is making Unity Catalog a stronger home for open table formats—combining interoperability, secure sharing, and centralized governance today, while also moving toward a shared metadata future with Iceberg v4 and Delta 5.0.

👉 Read the full post here

topic Unity Catalog and the next era of Apache Iceberg in Announcements

Unity Catalog and the next era of Apache Iceberg