Alex Merced

About Me

I am a passionate technologist, educator, and Developer Advocate focused on the modern Data Lakehouse architecture, Apache Iceberg, and the emerging field of Agentic Analytics. Born in Hartford, Connecticut, to a Guatemalan mother and Puerto Rican father, my journey into technology was anything but traditional.

From Economics to Engineering

After graduating from Bowling Green State University, I spent over a decade in New York City teaching economics and finance to professionals at Greico Financial Training. This formative experience honed my ability to break down highly complex, intimidating topics into accessible, modular concepts. In 2019, I fully pivoted into software development, working as a full-stack developer and a bootcamp instructor at General Assembly.

Today, I serve as the Head of Developer Relations at Dremio, where I focus on data engineering, open-source evangelism (Apache Iceberg, Apache Polaris), and developer education. I am a frequent speaker at global conferences including Data Council, Data Day Texas, Confluent Current, and DataEngBytes.

Published Books

I am deeply committed to open education and have authored/co-authored several foundational books in the modern data ecosystem (among my 35+ published works across tech, economics, and fiction).

• Apache Iceberg: The Definitive Guide: Co-authored insights into the world's leading open table format.
• Apache Polaris: The Definitive Guide: The authoritative text on open-source catalog federation.
• Architecting an Apache Iceberg Lakehouse: A practitioner's guide to building scalable, multi-engine lakehouses.
• Lakehouse for Everyone: A definitive guide to understanding and deploying the Open Data Lakehouse.
• Agentic Analytics: How autonomous AI agents are reshaping business intelligence.

You can explore my complete library of works at books.alexmerced.com.

Technical Focus

My technical research and writings focus on:

• Open Table Formats: Apache Iceberg, Delta Lake, Apache Hudi.
• Agentic Architecture: The Model Context Protocol (MCP), Semantic Layers, and LLM Orchestration.
• Distributed Query Engines: Dremio, Trino, Apache Spark, and Apache DataFusion.
• Metadata Federation: Apache Polaris, REST Catalogs, and Apache Gravitino.

Experience & Expertise (E-E-A-T)

The content published on this site is grounded in direct, first-hand practitioner experience building and evangelizing data infrastructure at enterprise scale. Every architectural guide, technical deep-dive, and code example is rigorously researched and tested against modern deployment realities to ensure absolute technical accuracy and safety.