Apache Iceberg 1.11 Brings Real Table-Level Encryption to the Open Lakehouse

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Apache Iceberg 1.11, released in May 2025, introduced table-level encryption as a major feature, marking a significant step toward truly secure open lakehouse architectures. The release pairs with the maturation of Apache Parquet's modular encryption, together providing a full envelope-encryption design with a three-tier key hierarchy and encrypted metadata. Unlike server-side encryption offered by cloud storage providers, this approach protects data cryptographically before it reaches storage, under keys the storage service never holds. The longstanding challenge has been building encrypted tables that remain readable across multiple query engines from different vendors — a hard distributed-systems problem the industry is only now beginning to solve. Despite the new capabilities, experts warn that partial understanding of cryptographic systems can create false confidence, making education around proper configuration critical for adoption.

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ProgrammingDEV Community ·

8 Hard-Learned Patterns for Running AI Agent Tool Calls Reliably at Scale

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