Data Lake Formation (DLF) is generally available by region starting December 16, 2025. With general availability, all DLF services are billed at standard rates and covered by an official service-level agreement (SLA).
DLF supports open lake storage formats including Apache Paimon, Apache Iceberg, Lance Table, Object Table, and Format Table — making it compatible with the broader open-source ecosystem from day one.
What DLF is
DLF is a fully managed platform that unifies metadata, data storage, and data management across all engines. It provides both table and file interfaces for reading, writing, and processing omnimodal data. Built for enterprise workloads, DLF delivers granular access control, storage optimization, and deep integration with Alibaba Cloud's big data, search, and AI engines — empowering enterprises to concentrate on business innovation and building Data+AI applications.
For a full product overview, see What is DLF?.
Key benefits
Cut storage costs by up to 30% — automatically
Intelligent, pay-as-you-go lake table optimization, intelligent storage tiering, observable storage metrics, and snapshot version rollbacks collectively reduce overall storage costs by up to 30%. Paimon table maintenance efficiency increases by 50%, and end-to-end query performance from engine to storage is doubled.
Manage Paimon end to end without operational overhead
DLF provides unified management and O&M for Paimon metadata and storage services. The fully managed lake table service is open, ready to use, and integrates seamlessly with open-source file formats — an essential building block for big data and Data+AI applications.
Enforce access control from API to data, at every level
DLF implements dual access control covering both API and data permissions. Granular permission management applies at the catalog, database, table, and field levels. Zone-redundant storage and cross-account data sharing protect data security, compliance, and service stability.
Run any engine against a single, unified layer
DLF extends Apache Paimon with commercial capabilities while maintaining full open-source compatibility. All engines — big data, search, and AI — share uniform access to metadata, storage, and permissions through DLF's ecosystem integrations with Alibaba Cloud services.
Get started
New to DLF: Open the DLF console and read What is DLF? to understand the product and set up your first lake table.
Existing DLF users: Review the Billing page to understand how charges apply to your current usage.
Billing
All DLF services are billed at standard rates following the commercial launch. For pricing details, see Billing.
SLA
DLF provides an official SLA to guarantee service availability and stability. For details, see DLF service level agreement.
Contact us
Join the DingTalk group (ID: 106575000021) for questions and support.