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title: "Apache Polaris Graduates to Top Level Project!"
date: 2026-02-19
author: Apache Polaris
---

We are thrilled to announce that **Apache Polaris** has officially graduated from the Apache Incubator to 
become a **Top Level Project (TLP)** at the Apache Software Foundation (ASF).

This milestone marks a significant pivotal point for the project, moving from a promising proposal to a mature, 
community-governed standard for data cataloging and access control in the open data lakehouse.

### What is Apache Polaris?

For those who are new to the project, Polaris is a **cloud-native, open-source catalog for Apache Iceberg**.
It provides a centralized service to manage your data across different engines and clouds,
ensuring that your Iceberg tables remain interoperable and secure.

By providing a vendor-neutral implementation of the **Apache Iceberg REST Catalog spec**,
Polaris solves one of the biggest headaches in modern data architecture: **vendor lock-in.**
Whether you are using Dremio, Snowflake, Apache Spark, Trino, or Apache Flink, Polaris ensures they are all looking
at the same source of truth.

### Why Graduation Matters

Graduating to a TLP is more than just a change in title. It’s a "seal of approval" from the ASF that
the project has demonstrated:

* **The Apache Way:** Demonstrated the ability to operate as a healthy, self-governing Apache project with
  the commitment to collaborative, transparent, peer-based, and meritocratic development using
  consensus-based decision-making and responsible oversight.
* **Community Health:** A diverse, sustainable, and growing group of contributors from various organizations.
  Open governance driven by the community, in transparency, vendor neutrality.
* **Technical Maturity:** A stable codebase that is ready for enterprise-grade production environments.

### The Journey So Far

Since entering the incubator, the progress has been nothing short of remarkable.
We’ve seen a surge in contributions that have helped us implement:

1. **Cross-Engine Interoperability:** Seamlessly sharing Iceberg tables across multiple processing engines.
2. **Fine-Grained Access Control:** Centralized security policies that follow your data, 
  no matter who is querying it.
3. **Multi-Cloud Support:** The flexibility to run your catalog wherever your data lives.

### What’s Next for Polaris?

While we are celebrating today, our eyes are firmly on the horizon.
As a Top Level Project, our focus will shift toward:

* Expanding support for even more storage backends and engines.
* Deepening our integration with the broader Apache Iceberg ecosystem.
* Continuing to lower the barrier to entry for organizations adopting an open data lakehouse.

### A Heartfelt Thank You

This achievement belongs to **you**, our community of developers, users, and mentors.
Whether you submitted a pull request, reported a bug, or shared your feedback on the mailing list,
you played a vital role in getting us here.

### Get Involved!

There has never been a better time to join the Polaris community.
Whether you're a data engineer looking for a better way to manage Iceberg tables or a developer
interested in open-source governance, we want your help.

**Onward to the next chapter of open data management!**
