Apache Iceberg, Hudi & Delta Lake are leading open-source projects providing decoupled storage with advanced transaction & metadata layers, known as table formats, in cloud storage. When data is stored in a distributed file system, these formats offer similar features: a table abstraction over files that includes schema, commit history, partitions & column statistics. Choosing a table format is a critical decision for engineers & orgs, given the distinct features of each project tailored to different use cases.

Enter Apache XTable, a newly incubated Apache project, designed for omni-directional interoperability among table formats. XTable doesn't introduce a new format but enables translation of table format metadata, allowing data to be written in any chosen format & converted to target formats consumable by various compute engines. This talk will demonstrate how XTable simplifies selecting table formats & addresses the increasing need for interoperability in lakehouse architectures.