Apache Druid 27.0.0 introduces several enhancements aimed at improving stability and scalability, including Smart Segment Loading and an upgraded schema auto-discovery feature. The new release adds the ability to run asynchronous queries, allowing for efficient handling of long-running, resource-intensive queries by querying data directly from deep storage without pre-caching. This feature enables a more flexible allocation of compute and storage resources. Additionally, the release graduates the type-aware schema auto-discovery to general availability, implements a memory-based subquery limit for better memory management, and integrates support for reading data from Apache Iceberg. Platform compatibility has also been improved, with better Graviton support and official Java 17 compatibility, and enhancements to the Kubernetes native ingestion experience. The update encourages users to test these features in production use cases and provide feedback to the Druid community.