In today’s enterprise landscape, data often lives in silos — across on-premises systems, cloud databases, and analytics platforms. When we started working with a Fortune 500 client, their challenge was no different. Multiple business units managed their own data sources, each with distinct access patterns and governance policies. Our goal was to bring all of that together in a secure, governed, and high-performance analytics environment.
The Challenge: Siloed Data Across Private Networks
The client’s data estate included a mix of:
- On-premises SQL Servers and file systems
- Azure-based storage accounts
- A private Databricks workspace (with both subnets locked down)
The biggest hurdle? Visibility and accessibility. Each data source was behind its own firewall, and cross-environment access required careful configuration.
The Solution: Unity Catalog as the Data Unifier
We implemented Databricks Unity Catalog as the single pane of glass for all data governance and access. Unity Catalog provided:
- Centralized metadata management across all workspaces
- Fine-grained access control down to tables and columns
- Simplified sharing of data across teams and projects
Once we configured the firewall rules between the private subnets and on-prem sources, Unity Catalog could seamlessly index and expose datasets from across the enterprise.
Integration with Synapse for Real-Time Sharing
To enable interoperability with existing analytics infrastructure, we integrated Databricks with Azure Synapse:
- Data is written to Azure Data Lake Storage in Delta format directly from Databricks.
- Synapse external tables are created on top of those Delta files.
- This enables real-time data sharing — any updates in Databricks are instantly visible in Synapse queries.
This architecture removed redundant ETL pipelines and enabled a single source of truth accessible from both environments.
Some legacy applications could read only from a SQL Server like system. We could avoid re-engineering those by having those consume data from Synapse Serverless.
Streamlined Access and Governance
One of the most powerful aspects of Unity Catalog is multi-workspace governance:
- We assigned specific catalogs to each Databricks workspace.
- Access was managed through Unity Catalog roles and grants.
- This gave teams the autonomy to innovate — while IT retained central governance.
With this setup, data scientists, analysts, and engineers could collaborate securely across the organization.
The Outcome: A Modern Data Warehouse Pattern
This hybrid model — Unity Catalog + Delta Lake + Synapse — has become a blueprint for modern data warehousing:
- Unified metadata and governance
- Secure, private network connectivity
- Real-time interoperability between Databricks and Synapse
- Streamlined access control and data lineage visibility
By bridging the gap between on-premises systems and cloud analytics, Unity Catalog helped transform a fragmented data landscape into a governed, unified ecosystem.