Open Data Infrastructure
Apache Hudi as Open Data Infrastructure
Hudi is an upsert-first open table format implementation that can be the right choice when change capture and incremental processing matter.
Most lakehouse stories assume append-only analytics. Real businesses do not. They update, delete, reconcile, and correct. Hudi exists for that reality.
What Hudi is
Apache Hudi is an open source table format implementation designed around upserts, incremental processing, and managing change over time in data lakes. It maintains a commit timeline and supports patterns that help downstream consumers process only what changed.
At a high level, Hudi gives you a table contract that can handle updates and deletes more directly than “append forever and hope consumers deduplicate correctly.”
Core idea: an “open lakehouse” is not useful if it cannot model change safely.
Workloads where Hudi shines
Hudi is a strong fit when:
- You ingest change data capture (CDC) and need consistent upsert semantics.
- Downstream systems want incremental pulls, not full table scans.
- You have late-arriving data and need reconciliation behavior that is explicit.
- You need to support deletes for compliance and retention requirements.
It is also a useful mental model for ODI because it forces you to define how change is represented. That definition is part of the data contract.
The ODI angle
ODI cares about three things here:
- Durable contracts: update semantics should not be hidden in a proprietary engine.
- Interoperable compute: multiple engines should be able to interpret the table correctly.
- Governance and evidence: lineage, auditability, and policy enforcement should still hold as change flows through.
Hudi can support these goals when it is deployed with a clear catalog boundary and with governance signals that are not tied to one engine UI.
Tradeoffs to name explicitly
Upsert-first table contracts introduce real complexity.
- Operational ownership: compaction, clustering, and retention have to be owned and measured.
- Engine support: “supports Hudi” can mean many things. Validate the behaviors you depend on.
- Semantic clarity: define what “latest” means, and how deletes and corrections propagate.
If you do not name these tradeoffs, they will show up later as broken downstream trust.
Sources to start with
Start with Hudi documentation and compare the table contract model to other open table format specs.