The Journey from Scattered Data to an Apache Iceberg Lakehouse with Governed Agentic Analytics

The conventional wisdom for data platform modernization goes like this: pick a target system, build ETL pipelines for every source, migrate everything, validate the data, retrain your users, and then start getting value. That process takes six to eighteen months. During that time, analysts are waiting and leadership is asking why the investment has not produced results yet. There is a better sequence. Instead of making everyone wait for a full migration, you start producing value on day one and