Delta Lake

Open-source storage layer bringing reliability to data lakes

Overview

Delta Lake is an open-source storage layer that brings ACID transactions to data lakes. Created by Databricks and now a Linux Foundation project, it's the foundation of the lakehouse architecture. Delta enables reliable data lakes with features previously only available in warehouses.

Key Features

✓ ACID Transactions: Reliable writes to data lakes
✓ Time Travel: Query historical data versions
✓ Schema Evolution: Handle schema changes gracefully
✓ Unified Batch/Streaming: Same tables for both
✓ Audit History: Full transaction log
✓ **

Pros

👍 Battle-tested at Databricks scale
👍 Strong Spark integration
👍 Growing multi-engine support
👍 Active open-source development
👍 Foundation of lakehouse architecture

Cons

👎 Best experience on Databricks
👎 Some features require Databricks
👎 Iceberg gaining momentum
👎 Engine support still maturing

Best For

Databricks users and teams building lakehouses. Essential for anyone wanting warehouse reliability on object storage.

Founded: 2019 HQ: Linux Foundation