Storage

What is lakehouse export?

Lakehouse export ships table data, often as Iceberg or Arrow, into an analytics lake without making the lake the system of record for media pipelines.

Updated

How it works

  • The pipeline stays on the media table.
  • An export writes a snapshot or a stream the warehouse can read.
  • Analysts query the lake. The application still inserts into the table.

What it is not

It is not replacing the multimodal table with a warehouse.

lakehouse export: this, and the thing it is confused with

lakehouse export: this, and the thing it is confused with
ThisNot this
System of record for mediaThe multimodal tableThe warehouse
Lake receivesA tabular exportThe video bytes and the orchestration
FormatIceberg, Arrow, or similarA folder of mp4s

Where Pixeltable fits

Pixeltable can export to Iceberg so a lakehouse reads the rows. The media pipeline stays on the table.

Questions

How does lakehouse export work?
The pipeline stays on the media table. An export writes a snapshot or a stream the warehouse can read. Analysts query the lake. The application still inserts into the table.
What is lakehouse export often confused with?
It is not replacing the multimodal table with a warehouse.