As knowledge and AI workloads scale, organizations want a platform that does extra than simply join providers—it should unify them. Azure Databricks brings collectively the total energy of the Databricks Information Intelligence Platform with deep Azure integrations to simplify and speed up each step of the information lifecycle. From centralized governance and open knowledge codecs to built-in warehousing and native AI instruments, Azure Databricks allows groups to maneuver quicker, scale back complexity, and innovate responsibly. Trusted by hundreds of consumers, together with main enterprises comparable to AT&T, Swiss Re, JLL, CVS Well being, HSBC, Shell, and Walgreens, Azure Databricks is a confirmed platform at scale.
This is a better take a look at 5 key the reason why knowledge and AI groups are selecting Azure Databricks as their unified platform for analytics and AI at scale.
1. Unified governance for knowledge + AI
Azure Databricks consists of Unity Catalog, the unified governance answer that permits organizations to make use of one strategy to handle all their knowledge and AI belongings. Whether or not it’s tables, recordsdata, notebooks, fashions, or dashboards, Unity Catalog allows groups to set entry insurance policies as soon as and apply them constantly throughout all workloads.
Unity Catalog’s Lakehouse Federation permits you to mount current knowledge with zero copy from programs comparable to SQL Server, BigQuery, Snowflake and storage comparable to ADLS or S3. You may as well hook up with current Iceberg or Hive Catalogs.
As a part of the Databricks Information Intelligence Platform on Azure, Unity Catalog helps guarantee enterprise-grade safety and lineage monitoring, and interoperability with Microsoft Purview, eliminating the necessity for a number of disconnected governance instruments. Unity Catalog helps guarantee discoverability, enterprise-grade safety and lineage monitoring to your Azure Databricks belongings, with the power to increase this to your complete knowledge property by combining with Microsoft Purview.
“Unity Catalog has been a game-changer for our enterprise as a result of now we’re in a position to present fine-grained management and entry to our knowledge.”
2. Deep integrations throughout the Azure ecosystem
Azure Databricks is absolutely built-in inside the Azure ecosystem, providing first-party, native connectors and streamlined experiences throughout:
- Energy BI – publish instantly from Unity Catalog and Databricks Workflows with full semantic mannequin help
- Azure OpenAI Service – mix massive language fashions with enterprise knowledge securely and responsibly. Along with Azure OpenAI, Azure Databricks offers you mannequin alternative together with unique entry to Anthropic Claude fashions hosted on Azure Databricks and open-source fashions like Meta’s Llama 4
- Azure Information Lake Storage, Azure Information Manufacturing facility, Entra ID, and Microsoft Purview – unify storage, identification, pipeline orchestration, and compliance in a single stack. New in Azure Information Manufacturing facility, the native Databricks Job exercise makes it simpler than ever to set off Databricks Workflows natively.
- Azure AI Foundry – run Azure Databricks Jobs and combine Azure Databricks AI/BI Genie with Foundry Brokers to ship contextual, enterprise-aware solutions
- Microsoft Energy Platform – seamlessly energy your apps, automations, and agent workflows with ruled knowledge, all with out duplicating it
With a few clicks from the Azure Portal, you may have a completely built-in atmosphere, with your whole customers and teams from Entra ID out there to construct knowledge and AI programs.
The prebuilt integrations scale back architectural overhead and speed up time to perception, serving to prospects take full benefit of the Azure-native Databricks expertise.
“Azure Databricks works throughout the ecosystem. We have a knowledge platform right here that is very wealthy, that makes use of so many alternative points of the Microsoft stack. Databricks is open and orchestrates nicely throughout the completely different platforms.”
3. Constructed-in knowledge warehousing with efficiency and suppleness
With the Databricks SQL knowledge warehouse, prospects can serve trendy SQL analytics and BI use circumstances instantly inside Azure Databricks, with out requiring a separate warehouse or creating copies of knowledge. Information stays in an open format, not locked right into a proprietary system, enabling enterprise analysts and knowledge engineers to collaborate on a single platform that helps:
- Excessive-concurrency, low-latency dashboards and advert hoc queries utilizing normal SQL
- Direct Energy BI integration with full governance by way of Unity Catalog
- Pure language querying by AI/BI Genie, making insights accessible to extra customers
“With Azure Databricks serving because the Information Intelligence Platform complemented with Microsoft’s Energy BI, the enterprise final result has been profound. Our use circumstances, like annuities digital menace, has had a multi-million greenback influence on winbacks.”
This stage of efficiency and ease displays the ability of Azure Databricks, enabling groups to unify their analytics layer with out compromising governance or scale.
4. AI growth made easy
Whether or not you are constructing LLM-powered copilots, fine-tuning proprietary fashions, or operating traditional machine studying workloads, Azure Databricks provides the pliability to do all of it whereas conserving governance and observability on the forefront.
By means of integrations with Azure OpenAI, open supply fashions like Llama 4, and help for suppliers like Anthropic, prospects can:
- Select the best mannequin for the best use case
- Customise together with your enterprise knowledge and serve fashions securely inside ruled environments
- Monitor price and efficiency by built-in observability instruments
The unified structure of the Databricks Information Intelligence Platform on Azure makes all of this potential, simplifying AI growth and aligning with enterprise safety necessities.
5. Excessive efficiency with low TCO
Azure Databricks is optimized for each efficiency and effectivity. With the Photon engine, workloads run quicker whereas consuming fewer sources, leading to actual, measurable financial savings for knowledge and AI groups. Key advantages embrace:
- 6x quicker efficiency than legacy warehouse engines
- Consumption-based pricing – pay just for what you utilize
- AI-powered auto-optimization, decreasing the necessity for guide tuning
“As a part of our adoption of the Databricks Information Intelligence Platform, we have now noticed an amazing quantity of knowledge high quality enchancment, quicker insights by not less than 25%.”
These capabilities mirror the design rules of the Databricks Information Intelligence Platform on Azure: open, clever, and cost-efficient.
Speed up innovation with Azure Databricks
From analytics to GenAI, Azure Databricks supplies a unified basis for innovation. As a part of your Microsoft Azure atmosphere, Azure Databricks lets you construct smarter, transfer quicker, and govern the whole lot in a single place, whether or not you’re scaling BI, accelerating AI, or simplifying your knowledge property. Hear extra how main enterprises are unlocking quicker insights, higher knowledge high quality, and tangible price financial savings utilizing Azure Databricks.
Get Began with a Free 14-day Trial of Azure Databricks.