Databricks to Open Supply Unity Catalog

At its Knowledge + AI Summit right now, Databricks introduced that it’s open sourcing Unity Catalog, the metadata catalog that governs how customers and compute engines can entry knowledge. Coming off of final week’s information round Apache Iceberg, the transfer marks an essential shift for Databricks because it seeks to take care of momentum as prospects more and more demand open lakehouse platforms.

Databricks unveiled Unity Catalog again in 2021 as a option to govern and safe entry to knowledge saved in Delta, the desk format that Databricks created in 2017 because the linchpin of its lakehouse technique. It has remained a proprietary product at Databricks since.

However lately, a competing desk format, Apache Iceberg, has gained momentum within the massive knowledge ecosystem. Databricks addressed Iceberg’s rise final week with the deliberate acquisition of Tabular, the lakehouse firm based by Iceberg’s creator. Databricks’ technique is to progressively transfer the Iceberg and Delta specs nearer collectively over time, thereby eliminating the variations between them.

That left the standard metadata catalog because the final piece standing between prospects and their dream of a very open knowledge lakehouse. Databricks’ rival, Snowflake, addressed the potential lock-in of the metadata catalog final week with the launch of Polaris, which is predicated on Iceberg’s REST-based API. The corporate tells Datanami that it plans to donate the Polaris venture to open supply, possible the Apache Software program Basis, inside 90 days.

That left the still-proprietary Unity Catalog because the odd-man out on the metadata catalog layer, simply as a brand new period of open lakehouses out of the blue arrives. To deal with that strategic shift out there, Databricks determined to open supply Unity Catalog.

The transfer creates the “USB” for knowledge entry, Databricks CEO Ali Ghodsi mentioned throughout his keynote deal with at Databricks’ Knowledge + AI Summit in San Francisco.

“All of the silos that you simply had earlier than, they’ll simply entry one copy of the information that’s in a standardized USB format underneath your possession,” Ghodsi mentioned. “It goes by way of one governance layer that’s simply standardized–that’s Unity Catalog–for your entire knowledge.”

Unity Catalog beforehand supported Delta and Iceberg, along with Apache Hudi, one other open desk format, through Databricks’ Delta Lake UniForm format. In reality, Unity Catalog additionally helps Iceberg’s REST-based API, Ghodsi identified.

“We principally standardized the information layer and the safety layer so that you simply personal your knowledge and every thing goes by way of these open interfaces,” he mentioned. “And I feel that’s going to be superior for the neighborhood, for everyone in right here. As a result of we simply have far more use instances. We’re going to have the ability to do rather more innovation, and we’ll simply increase this marketplace for all people concerned.”

Databricks CEO Ali Ghodsi introduced the open sourcing of Unity Catalog at Knowledge + AI Summit, June 12, 2024

Databricks prospects applauded the transfer, together with AT&T and Nasdaq.

“With the announcement of Unity Catalog’s open sourcing, we’re inspired by Databricks’ step to make lakehouse governance and metadata administration attainable by way of open requirements,” mentioned Matt Dugan, AT&T’s vice chairman for knowledge platforms. “The pliability to make the most of interoperable instruments with our knowledge and AI belongings, with constant governance, is core to the AT&T knowledge platform technique.”

“Databricks’ choice to open supply Unity Catalog gives an answer that helps remove knowledge silos and we look ahead to additional scaling our platform, enhancing our governance, and modernizing our knowledge functions as we proceed to ship for our purchasers,” mentioned Lenny Rosenfeld, Nasdaq’s vice chairman of capital entry platforms.

It’s not clear what open supply basis Databricks will select for Unity Catalog OSS, nor what the timeline will likely be. Beforehand, Databricks has chosen The Linux Basis to open supply varied internally developed merchandise, together with Delta and MLFlow.

Unity Catalog will likely be posted to Github on Thursday throughout Databricks’ CTO Matei Zaharai keynote at Knowledge + AI Summit, the corporate mentioned.

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