Unity Catalog
+ Atlan

Build Trust, Capture Business Context, and Enable Cross-System Governance Across Your Data Platform

Unity Catalog provides the governance foundation in Databricks. Atlan extends that trust, context, and control across the entire stack from source DBs to BI tools for both technical and business teams.
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“If we didn’t have AI in our arsenal, we could find ourselves at a competitive disadvantage. Unity Catalog worked out of the box for us… and Atlan gave us visibility from the cloud all the way back to our on-prem.”

Brian Ames

Head of AI Center

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Atlan adds capabilities, extends them to more systems and user types

Unity Catalog provides governance foundation within Databricks. Atlan extends trust, context, and control across your entire data stack for comprehensive governance.

  • Enable federated, interoperable, multi-platform governance

    Unity Catalog governs Databricks, and Atlan extends those controls across cloud platforms, BI tools, and SaaS applications for consistent governance everywhere.

  • Make data usable for everyone

    Unity Catalog serves technical users, while Atlan brings a consumer-grade experience to every persona—engineers, analysts, stewards, business users, and AI agents.

  • Trace the end-to-end data journey

    Unity Catalog delivers lineage in Databricks, and Atlan extends that visibility across sources, transformations, and dashboards for column-level, end-to-end trust.

  • Advanced governance for enterprise needs

    Unity Catalog offers tagging and glossaries, and Atlan adds workflows, a no-code Policy Center, and automated playbooks to power enterprise-wide governance.

What Unity Catalog and Atlan deliver together,
at a glance

CapabilityUnity CatalogAtlan logoUnity Catalog + Atlan
DiscoveryDiscovery across Databricks and federated sources with a technical-first interfaceAll systems with persona-based interfacesComplete discovery across technical and business users
LineageColumn-level lineage within Databricks workspacesColumn-level end-to-end across all systemsFull data journey visibility with impact analysis
GovernanceAccess control and masking optimized for Delta LakeCross-system policy orchestration with workflowsConsistent governance enforcement across systems
User AdoptionOptimized for data engineers and technical teamsAll organizational personas including business usersOrganization-wide data culture transformation
Data ProductsFoundational marketplace capabilities within DatabricksBusiness-ready products grouped by domainsSelf-service data consumption at scale
Data QualityMonitoring capabilities within DatabricksNo-code rules with best-of-breed tool integrationComprehensive quality management
AI GovernanceDatabricks ML asset managementAI asset management across all platformsComplete AI governance lifecycle
ArchitecturePlatform-native with Databricks optimizationOpen, interoperable metadata lakehouseFuture-proof flexibility with current optimization
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Why is Atlan the best universal catalog
for Unity?

01
Enterprise-wide adoption
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Atlan extends the intuitive Databricks experience to every persona by embedding metadata into everyday tools and curating assets into business-ready data products.
Enterprise-wide adoption
02
Faster time to value through automation
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No-code Databricks setup in under 30 minutes. Playbooks and Atlan AI automate tagging and governance with a 70% suggestion acceptance rate.
03
Deep, two-way integration with Databricks
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Bi-directional tag sync keeps policies aligned between Atlan and Unity Catalog and automates masking and compliance across systems.
04
End-to-end lineage across the enterprise
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Atlan connects Unity Catalog lineage across sources, pipelines, and BI to provide column-level, end-to-end visibility.
05
Partners in innovation with Databricks
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Built in close partnership with Databricks, featuring early bi-directional tag sync and joint innovations like Atlan Data Quality Studio and the Iceberg-native Metadata Lakehouse.
06
Future-proof for data and AI
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An Iceberg-native metadata lakehouse equips your stack for evolving data and AI use cases, including copilots like Databricks Genie.

Build a future-ready data estate

Combine Unity Catalog and Atlan to bring consistent controls and end-to-end visibility to your entire data estate.

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Frequently Asked Questions: Atlan + Databricks Unity Catalog

What is the primary difference between Databricks Unity Catalog and Atlan?
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Databricks Unity Catalog is a technical, platform-native catalog designed to manage metadata within the Databricks ecosystem. Atlan is a universal, business-user-friendly enterprise data catalog that acts as a governance and collaboration layer across your entire data stack, including Databricks, Snowflake, and various BI tools.
Does Atlan replace Databricks Unity Catalog?
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No. Unity remains your governance authority in Databricks. Atlan complements Unity with cross-system discovery, lineage, and policy workflows so people outside Databricks can still find and trust data.
Can I get end-to-end lineage with Unity Catalog alone?
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Unity Catalog provides robust lineage within a single Databricks workspace. However, its lineage capabilities for external or federated sources and across multiple Databricks workspaces are limited. Atlan provides true end-to-end, column-level lineage across all your systems.
How does governance work between Atlan and Unity Catalog?
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Atlan supports bi-directional tag sync with Unity. Tags and policies flow both ways, enabling automated masking and consistent enforcement.
How do Atlan and Unity Catalog integrate without creating conflicts?
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Atlan and Databricks maintain a strategic partnership with native bi-directional tag synchronization. Governance policies defined in Atlan automatically propagate to Unity Catalog for technical enforcement, while Unity's metadata enriches Atlan's business context. This creates complementary rather than competing capabilities.
How does this affect our existing Databricks investment?
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This approach maximizes your Unity Catalog investment by extending its value across your broader data ecosystem. Unity continues optimizing Databricks governance while Atlan adds cross-system capabilities and business user adoption that Unity wasn't architected to provide.
What's the implementation complexity and timeline?
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Implementation follows a phased approach preserving existing Unity workflows while adding cross-system capabilities. Organizations typically achieve immediate value through expanded discovery and business access, with full governance integration completing within 90-180 days depending on ecosystem complexity.
 

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