Unity Catalog: Data Governance and Data Lineage in Databricks

Data, AI & Machine Learning Engineering Solution

context​

The rapid convergence of data, analytics, and Artificial Intelligence is driving transformative change across industries, with both immense opportunities and significant challenges.  As data flows through various systems and undergoes multiple transformations, maintaining visibility and control becomes increasingly complex; nonetheless many organizations lack a holistic, actionable governance framework that spans the entire data ecosystem – from Business Intelligence to Machine Learning.

With Generative AI (GenAI) and Large Language Models (LLMs) becoming deeply embedded and critical in business operations, robust data governance is essential to ensure fairness, accountability, and security, safeguarding both business integrity and stakeholder trust.

A crucial aspect of data governance is data lineage, which provides a comprehensive view of data’s journey through an organization: from its origin, through transformation processes, to its final consumption. This visibility is crucial for regulatory compliance, data quality assurance, and driving confident business decisions.

data governance

PAIN POINTs

  • Limited data visibility: Data origin, transformations and stream in AI initiatives are not clear, leading to data accuracy concerns.
  • Regulatory compliance risks: Lack of lineage tracking can ultimately result in regulatory breaches and legal issues.
  • Prevalence of data silos: Lack of a holistic view results in fragmented, duplicated, and inconsistent data across organizational units.
  • Inefficient error resolution: Data teams spend excessive time on manual root cause analysis, diverting resources from significant projects.
  • Erosion of stakeholder trust: Poor data lineage can foster doubt in data reliability and data-driven initiatives.

solution

Bitrock brings deep expertise and proven methodologies to assist companies in seamlessly adopting and maximizing the benefits of advanced data governance features. Among these, Unity Catalog (within the Databricks platform) provides a unified layer for all data assets within an organization. It can be considered as a central command center that simplifies how data is managed, secured, and shared. With its open-source foundation, Unity Catalog offers flexibility and transparency while addressing common challenges in enterprise data management.

Unity Catalog enables businesses to automatically capture and visualize data lineage at both column- and row-level across notebooks, workflows, and AI models. This means organizations can trace the entire lifecycle of their data – from ingestion to transformation to consumption – without relying on manual processes.

With automated lineage tracking, compliance reporting becomes significantly easier. Data teams and auditors can quickly retrieve lineage records, demonstrating how data has been processed and used. 

This not only reduces regulatory burdens but also enhances overall transparency across the enterprise. Additionally, with improved visibility into data movement, teams can quickly identify and resolve inconsistencies, ensuring higher data quality and reliability.

By leveraging Unity Catalog in Databricks, businesses can break down data silos and enable seamless collaboration between data engineers, analysts, and business leaders. With a shared understanding of how data flows across systems, organizations can drive more consistent governance policies while unlocking the full potential of their data assets.

Bitrock, as a Databricks Partner, is well-positioned to support companies in implementing the data lineage advanced functionalities of Unity Catalog in the realm of Databricks: our experienced Professionals tailor solutions that align with our Clients’ specific business needs, ensuring a smooth implementation process and accelerating their journey towards effective data governance and unlocking the full potential of data assets.

benefits

  • Open Source: Unity Catalog is a solid and open foundation for current and future innovation.
  • Industry-standard Security Framework: Unity Catalog allows administrators to apply granular security controls at multiple levels – from broad catalog access down to specific tables and views. 
  • Stronger Compliance and Security: Organizations can confidently meet regulatory requirements (eg GDPR) by maintaining clear, verifiable lineage records.
  • Enabling a Single Source of Truth: Business leaders and data teams gain full visibility into how data is sourced, transformed, and utilized.
  • Faster Issue Resolution: Automated lineage tracking reduces the time spent troubleshooting data discrepancies.
  • Optimized Decision-Making: Reliable, high-quality data enables smarter, faster business decisions that drive competitive advantage.
Technology Stack and Key Skills​

 

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