Hash partitioning distributes data evenly. Range partitioning enables fast range scans. Both create tradeoffs. Here is how databases divide data across storage and nodes.
Lakehouse catalogs store metadata pointers, manage namespaces, and enforce access control. Here is the complete catalog landscape from Polaris to Glue.
Databases use buffer pools, column caches, and result caches to keep hot data in RAM. Here is how each caching strategy works and what happens when data does not fit.
Here is exactly how an engine writes to an Iceberg table, step by step, from data files through the atomic commit that makes ACID guarantees possible.
