New integration strengthens interoperability across open lakehouse environments, enabling enterprises to securely access and govern data anywhere it lives
Cloudera, the only company bringing AI to data anywhere, today announced its adoption of Apache Polaris™ as part of its open data lakehouse architecture powered by Apache Iceberg™. Announced at Snowflake Summit 2026, the integration reinforces Cloudera’s commitment to open standards, interoperability, and governed access to enterprise data anywhere it resides.
As enterprises scale AI initiatives, they are increasingly challenged by fragmented data estates, governance complexity, and vendor lock-in. Cloudera’s recent Data Readiness Index 2026 found that 79% of organizations say their data-backed initiatives are hindered because they cannot access 100% of the data they need across environments, while only 18% report their data is fully governed. Cloudera’s adoption of Apache Polaris helps organizations securely access and share governed data across analytics and AI engines while maintaining centralized governance and operational control.
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Apache Polaris, an open source catalog built around the Apache Iceberg REST Catalog specification, is designed to improve interoperability across modern data ecosystems and support governed access to enterprise data for AI and analytics. The integration enables organizations to reduce data movement and duplication while improving interoperability across modern data ecosystems, helping enterprises accelerate AI and analytics initiatives, simplify governance, and lower operational complexity across hybrid and multicloud environments.
The true benefits of interoperability are observed only if there is a trusted governance layer. Cloudera contributed a new Apache Ranger authorizer plugin as an external authorizer (Beta) in Apache Polaris 1.5—bringing enterprise-grade, centralized security and policy management to your data.
“Enterprises need the freedom to run analytics and AI wherever it makes sense for the business, without moving data or compromising governance,” said Leo Brunnick, Chief Product Officer at Cloudera. “By adopting Apache Polaris, Cloudera is extending our open data strategy to help customers securely bring AI to their data anywhere it lives. Cloudera’s adoption and contribution to the project reflects a shared commitment to giving enterprises greater flexibility, governance, and choice across their data ecosystems.”
This builds upon Cloudera’s AI & Data Anywhere strategy, enabling organizations to run AI and analytics across public clouds, data centers, and sovereign environments with consistent governance, security, and operational flexibility.
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