There's talk of trying to come up with a mutually agreeable serialization format for types between HBase, Phoenix, Impala, and Kite that's underway on the HBase dev list: http://mail-archives.apache.org/mod_mbox/hbase-dev/201405.mbox/%3CCAAha9a3WQm7cbSAMHifb_e25fSrwYHutqtxnKi9rxOrn5w%2BMVA%40mail.gmail.com%3E
Here's a Google doc with more detail: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1BJooXphOduuPJHEfd3dAeF9Md3Zp2kRG31WExI4l88E/edit#heading=h.z8z5bez4m5uo Feedback is welcome. Thanks, James
