Using Managed Iceberg Tables to Build a Datalake Inside Snowflake

Snowflake has introduced Managed Iceberg Tables, allowing users to build an Iceberg datalake natively within Snowflake. This feature includes a new object called EXTERNAL VOLUME for interacting with Iceberg tables in object storage. Users can create external volumes using S3, Azure, or GCP and set up IAM controls to grant Snowflake access to the storage. To create an Iceberg table, users need to specify the catalog (Snowflake), external volume, and base location. While Snowflake-managed Iceberg tables have some limitations, they can be synced with Polaris for more advanced features and broader compatibility.