What is Unity Catalog and Why Should I Care?

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Done correctly
Effective data governance is the driving force behind reliable data, strengthening everything from operational efficiency to strategic planning to risk management and innovation. It:

• Ensures adherence to privacy laws like GDPR or CCPA
• Informs critical business decisions
• Helps protect sensitive information from unauthorized access or breaches
• Creates a consistent, company-wide framework for data management

Done incorrectly
Without proper data governance, organizations can face significant issues that erode trust in data, impacting business operations and customer relationships:

• Poor data quality
• Inaccurate decision-making
• Inconsistent reporting
• Difficulty in regulatory compliance
• Legal trouble in privacy law

Out with Hive, In with Unity Catalog

One of the biggest changes you can initiate with zeb is the migration from Hive Metastore to Unity Catalog. Hive Metastore is an older, less intuitive, and less efficient tool for managing metadata. Unity Catalog is a modern, secure, and user-friendly solution. For clients using Databricks, Unity Catalog also offers advanced governance features.

Robust Data Governance:

• Fine-grained access control
• Role-Based Access Control (RBAC)
• Attribute-Based Access Control (ABAC)
• Data lineage
• Auditing capabilities
• Metadata management
• Attribute detection
• Dependency mapping

Sophisticated AI Governance:

• Managed MLflow
• Feature store governance
• Model versioning
• AI gateway
• Lakehouse monitoring

Centralized Management:

• Unified view of metadata across multiple workspaces
  • Enables centralized data governance

Access Control:

• Granular permission management
  • Including column-level access control

Integration with Databricks:

• Seamless integration with Databricks platform
  • The preferred data governance choice for Databricks users

Why you should migrate with zeb

Our Hive to Unity Catalog migration process is comprehensive. We start by assessing your existing data, then we set up Unity Catalog, export Hive metadata, create new tables in Unity Catalog, and update data access controls to reflect your new system. The primary tool for this migration is often the “SYNC” command within Databricks, which efficiently copies table definitions and schema.

• Assessment and Planning: Before migration, our team will thoroughly analyze your existing Hive metadata – including tables, databases, partitions, and access controls – to understand what needs to be migrated and how.
• Setting Up Unity Catalog: This step involves enabling Unity Catalog within your Databricks workspace and configuring appropriate permissions for users and groups.
• Metadata Extraction: Here, we use Hive or Spark SǪL commands to export table schema and other metadata from the Hive Metastore into formats suitable for Unity Catalog (e.g., JSON or CSV).
• Table Creation in Unity Catalog: Next, we leverage the “SYNC” command to create new tables in Unity Catalog, mirroring existing Hive tables, including their schema and data location.
• Access Control Migration: We then translate existing Hive access control policies into Unity Catalog’s granular permission model, defining user and group access levels for each table.
• Data Pipeline Updates: Finally, we modify existing data pipelines and queries to point to the newly created Unity Catalog tables.

Take the first step, contact us today

Ready to level up your data governance? By ensuring the reports you extract from your data are accurate and up to date, you position your organization to make smarter decisions.

Staying compliant with relevant regulations mitigates risks and protects sensitive information. To learn more about migrating your organization to Unity Catalog with zeb, get in touch now at sales@zeb.co