Get Kafka-Nated S2E2: Viktor Kessler on Apache Iceberg, OSS, and Community

Aiven

Feb 23, 2026

In this episode, we sit down with Viktor Kessler, co-founder of Vakamo, major contributor to Lakekeeper, and organiser of Apache Iceberg Meetup Europe, to explore the evolving world of Apache Iceberg.

From architectural deep dives to open-source governance, Viktor shares insights from building an Iceberg REST catalog in Rust, launching a company around open data governance and growing the European Iceberg community from Dublin to Vilnius.

If you’re working with data platforms, streaming systems like Kafka and Flink or building lakehouse architectures, this episode is packed with practical insight and forward-looking ideas.

What We’ll Cover:

What Apache Iceberg really is (and why it’s “a database table without a database”)
The origin story of Lakekeeper and why the Iceberg REST catalog matters
Open governance and avoiding vendor lock-in in the lakehouse era
The relationship between Iceberg, streaming and Apache Kafka
Building a company around open source: trade-offs and philosophy
Why metadata (not just data) is the next big battleground

Timestamps:

00:48 – How Viktor got involved with Apache Iceberg

04:16 – The origin of Lakekeeper

08:44 – Iceberg & Kafka: streaming meets table formats

12:09 – Open governance and building Vakamo

15:22 – Why metadata is becoming critical

19:45 – Balancing open source with building a business

28:09 – Lessons from growing the European Iceberg community

32:05 – What’s next for Iceberg?

38:19 – Should projects join a foundation?

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