diff --git a/ci/builder/Dockerfile b/ci/builder/Dockerfile
index 123c2411dfea4..52ca961d07941 100644
--- a/ci/builder/Dockerfile
+++ b/ci/builder/Dockerfile
@@ -10,7 +10,7 @@
 # Build a cross-compiling toolchain that targets the oldest version of Linux
 # that we support.
 
-FROM ubuntu:jammy-20221130 AS crosstool
+FROM ubuntu:jammy-20230605 AS crosstool
 ARG ARCH_GCC
 ARG ARCH_GO
 
@@ -68,7 +68,7 @@ RUN DEFCONFIG=crosstool-$ARCH_GCC.defconfig ct-ng defconfig \
 # Import the cross-compiling toolchain into a fresh image, omitting the
 # dependencies that we needed to actually build the toolchain.
 
-FROM ubuntu:jammy-20221130
+FROM ubuntu:jammy-20230605
 ARG ARCH_GCC
 ARG ARCH_GO
 
diff --git a/src/adapter/src/catalog.rs b/src/adapter/src/catalog.rs
index 5de5c3c83f2c1..eaa48f3af6d4e 100644
--- a/src/adapter/src/catalog.rs
+++ b/src/adapter/src/catalog.rs
@@ -7343,6 +7343,7 @@ impl Catalog {
                     }
                 }
             },
+            finalize_shards: self.system_config().storage_client_finalize_shards(),
         }
     }
 
diff --git a/src/sql/src/session/vars.rs b/src/sql/src/session/vars.rs
index da662d7c8c210..0090d744c5c4f 100644
--- a/src/sql/src/session/vars.rs
+++ b/src/sql/src/session/vars.rs
@@ -959,6 +959,15 @@ const KEEP_N_SOURCE_STATUS_HISTORY_ENTRIES: ServerVar<usize> = ServerVar {
     internal: true
 };
 
+/// Whether compute rendering should use Materialize's custom linear join implementation rather
+/// than the one from Differential Dataflow.
+const STORAGE_CLIENT_FINALIZE_SHARDS: ServerVar<bool> = ServerVar {
+    name: UncasedStr::new("storage_client_finalize_shards"),
+    value: &true,
+    description: "Whether to all the storage client to finalize shards (Materialize).",
+    internal: true,
+};
+
 // Macro to simplify creating feature flags, i.e. boolean flags that we use to toggle the
 // availability of features.
 //
@@ -2203,6 +2212,11 @@ impl SystemVars {
     pub fn enable_mz_join_core(&self) -> bool {
         *self.expect_value(&ENABLE_MZ_JOIN_CORE)
     }
+
+    /// Returns the `pg_replication_tcp_user_timeout` configuration parameter.
+    pub fn storage_client_finalize_shards(&self) -> bool {
+        *self.expect_value(&STORAGE_CLIENT_FINALIZE_SHARDS)
+    }
 }
 
 /// A `Var` represents a configuration parameter of an arbitrary type.
diff --git a/src/storage-client/src/controller.rs b/src/storage-client/src/controller.rs
index 5e541410e4de5..8473fe323c7bd 100644
--- a/src/storage-client/src/controller.rs
+++ b/src/storage-client/src/controller.rs
@@ -2295,7 +2295,9 @@ where
                     .await
                     .expect("stash operation must succeed");
 
-                self.finalize_shards().await;
+                if self.state.config.finalize_shards {
+                    self.finalize_shards().await;
+                }
             }
             Some(StorageResponse::StatisticsUpdates(source_stats, sink_stats)) => {
                 // Note we only hold the locks while moving some plain-old-data around here.
diff --git a/src/storage-client/src/types/parameters.proto b/src/storage-client/src/types/parameters.proto
index 1aa52c9202213..72fa4fcb3d47d 100644
--- a/src/storage-client/src/types/parameters.proto
+++ b/src/storage-client/src/types/parameters.proto
@@ -21,6 +21,7 @@ message ProtoStorageParameters {
     ProtoPgReplicationTimeouts pg_replication_timeouts = 3;
     uint64 keep_n_source_status_history_entries = 4;
     mz_rocksdb.config.ProtoRocksDbTuningParameters upsert_rocksdb_tuning_config = 5;
+    bool finalize_shards = 6;
 }
 
 
diff --git a/src/storage-client/src/types/parameters.rs b/src/storage-client/src/types/parameters.rs
index 52db6ef50b72f..c2d5244994f52 100644
--- a/src/storage-client/src/types/parameters.rs
+++ b/src/storage-client/src/types/parameters.rs
@@ -31,6 +31,10 @@ pub struct StorageParameters {
     pub keep_n_source_status_history_entries: usize,
     /// A set of parameters used to tune RocksDB when used with `UPSERT` sources.
     pub upsert_rocksdb_tuning_config: mz_rocksdb::RocksDBTuningParameters,
+    /// Whether or not to allow shard finalization to occur. Note that this will
+    /// only disable the actual finalization of shards, not registering them for
+    /// finalization.
+    pub finalize_shards: bool,
 }
 
 impl StorageParameters {
@@ -42,12 +46,14 @@ impl StorageParameters {
             pg_replication_timeouts,
             keep_n_source_status_history_entries,
             upsert_rocksdb_tuning_config,
+            finalize_shards,
         }: StorageParameters,
     ) {
         self.persist.update(persist);
         self.pg_replication_timeouts = pg_replication_timeouts;
         self.keep_n_source_status_history_entries = keep_n_source_status_history_entries;
         self.upsert_rocksdb_tuning_config = upsert_rocksdb_tuning_config;
+        self.finalize_shards = finalize_shards
     }
 }
 
@@ -60,6 +66,7 @@ impl RustType<ProtoStorageParameters> for StorageParameters {
                 self.keep_n_source_status_history_entries,
             ),
             upsert_rocksdb_tuning_config: Some(self.upsert_rocksdb_tuning_config.into_proto()),
+            finalize_shards: self.finalize_shards,
         }
     }
 
@@ -77,6 +84,7 @@ impl RustType<ProtoStorageParameters> for StorageParameters {
             upsert_rocksdb_tuning_config: proto
                 .upsert_rocksdb_tuning_config
                 .into_rust_if_some("ProtoStorageParameters::upsert_rocksdb_tuning_config")?,
+            finalize_shards: proto.finalize_shards,
         })
     }
 }