September 2025
Intermediate to advanced
384 pages
11h 34m
English
Content preview from Data Governance with Unity Catalog on Databricks
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Chapter 2. Unity Catalog Under the Hood
In 2021, while the data architects at Nexa Boutique (Nexa) were analyzing data governance strategies for the firm, Databricks announced Unity Catalog. This native data governance solution for the Databricks Platform provided a more capable alternative to HMS. Unity Catalog unifies governance for all Databricks Platform assets, including tables, views, ML and AI models, vector tables, and files in Unity Catalog Volumes across workspace boundaries.
Organizations typically work with multiple data formats across their data estates, generated by disparate source systems, which warrant multiple data governance tools—a challenge that Nexa also faced. Using numerous bespoke data governance tools within your data estate leads to fragmented governance, which is often not a deliberate choice. Unity Catalog addresses the issue of fragmented governance by providing a unified and cohesive product for governing your data and AI assets.
This chapter covers Unity Catalog’s quintessential architecture. It explores what is under the hood and the features that make it an ideal catalog for meeting your governance needs.
The story of Unity Catalog begins with the history of governance in Databricks, specifically the limitations of the HMS in addressing data governance needs. As we explore the evolution of governance in Databricks and the challenges posed by HMS, you’ll begin to appreciate the need for a more robust and scalable governance solution, ultimately ...
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