One Place to Govern Data and AI
Tables, files, models, agents, and AI tools governed with the same permissions, lineage, and audit, across workspaces and clouds.
Databricks Unity Catalog
Govern Data and AI in One Place With Databricks Unity Catalog
Unity Catalog is the governance layer of the Databricks platform, and with Unity AI Gateway it now governs what AI agents do, not just what they can access. KPI Partners implements both, so access, lineage, and audit hold from your first table to your newest agent.
The payoff
Govern Once, Trust Everywhere
Access That Scales by Policy
Tag data once, and policies apply row filters and column masks to every matching table, now and in the future.
AI Agents With Guardrails
Unity AI Gateway guards against exposure of personally identifiable information (PII), prompt injection, and unsafe content, and enforces spend limits.
Audit-Ready by Default
Lineage captured automatically down to the column, with a record of who accessed what, ready when the auditor asks.
Why now
Agents Act on Your Data. Governance Has to Keep Up.
Most governance was built for people querying tables. AI agents now call models, invoke tools, and reach into other systems on their own. When permissions live in workspace metastores, bucket policies, and spreadsheets, there is no single place to see or control what your data and AI can do.
The usual path
- A separate metastore and permission system in every workspace.
- Access rules managed table by table, with gaps between them.
- Lineage pieced together by hand whenever an auditor asks.
- Models, agents, and AI tools governed outside the data platform, if at all.
With Databricks Unity Catalog and KPI Partners
- One account-level catalog for data and AI, across workspaces and clouds.
- Policies written once against governed tags and applied wherever they match.
- Column-level lineage and audit captured automatically.
- Sensitive data classified and tagged as it lands.
- Models, agents, and Model Context Protocol (MCP) tools governed with the same controls, enforced at runtime by Unity AI Gateway.
KPI Partners and Unity Catalog
How KPI Partners and Unity Catalog Work Together
Unity Catalog gives you one governance model. KPI Partners designs it, moves your estate onto it, and extends it to the AI agents your business is starting to rely on. Start wherever your estate is today.
A Unity Catalog Foundation
Metastore and catalog design, account groups, and attribute-based access control (ABAC) policies, built with our Databricks Unity Catalog Enablement accelerator.
Governed tagsAccount groups
Hive Metastore to Unity Catalog
Upgrade or federate legacy tables, update jobs and queries, and retire direct Hive metastore access once workloads have moved.
Federation-first upgradeLegacy access retired
Governed Data Products
Pre-built data models and curated metrics for enterprise systems from our Enterprise Analytics Accelerator, with lineage and access controls in place from day one.
Medallion modelsMetrics library
AI Governance With Unity AI Gateway
Register models, agents, and MCP services in Unity Catalog, then set guardrails, spend limits, and payload logging that hold at runtime.
Service policiesGuardrails
How We Engage on Databricks Unity Catalog
We start with the domain where governance matters most, prove the model end to end, then scale it across the estate.
Readiness Assessment
We map your workspaces, metastores, permissions, sensitive data, and AI assets, and design the target governance model.
- Current-state governance review
- Target catalog and policy design
- Prioritized upgrade plan
First Governed Domain
We take one domain end to end: tables upgraded, policies applied, and lineage and audit proven before it scales.
- Domain catalog with ABAC policies
- Lineage and audit in place
- Upgraded jobs and queries
Migrate and Scale
We move the remaining workspaces in waves and extend governance to models and agents through Unity AI Gateway.
- Workspaces upgraded in waves
- Hive metastore access retired
- AI assets under one policy model
Run and Optimize
We keep policies current as data, teams, and agents change, and watch usage and spend.
- Regular access and policy reviews
- Usage and spend monitoring
- New domains and agents onboarded
Migrate from
Bringing Your Systems Under Unity Catalog
From legacy metastores to the enterprise systems your business runs on, we land data in Unity Catalog with access, lineage, and audit in place from day one.
Hive metastoreLegacy table access control
Unity CatalogUpgrade in place or federate first, with no data movement
Oracle EBSOracle FusionSAP S/4HANASAP AribaMicrosoft Dynamics 365
Governed finance and operations dataPre-built models and metrics, governed in Unity Catalog
SalesforceOracle CXWorkdayOracle Fusion HCMOracle Taleo
Governed customer and people dataSensitive fields masked by policy
Oracle Transportation ManagementVeeva
Governed supply chain and industry dataLineage from source to every report and agent
Why KPI Partners
Why KPI Partners for Databricks Unity Catalog
Accelerators for the Hard Parts
Our Databricks Unity Catalog Enablement accelerator, with our Data Platform Migration Accelerator and Data Quality Validator for Databricks, takes the manual effort out of design, upgrade, and validation.
Governed Data Products From Day One
Our Enterprise Analytics Accelerator builds data quality, lineage, and access controls in from the start, not after an audit.
Certified Context for AI
Our Enterprise Context Engine certifies definitions and verifies context, so agents answer from governed meaning, not whatever they find.
Agents Built Governed
Our IQ Foundry domain agents, such as SalesIQ, are built with Unity Catalog governance across data, model, and agent lineage.
A certified Databricks partner, validated through real customer migrations
Explore the KPI Partners and Databricks partnershipSilverDatabricks partner tier
Migrate & ModernizeDatabricks specialization
100+Databricks-certified consultants
50+Unity Catalog badges
Featured work
Featured Case Studies & Blogs
Governed Databricks platforms we have delivered, and our perspective on governing AI.
Case study
Oracle-to-Databricks Lakehouse Migration on AWS for a Global Life Sciences Leader
Read Case StudyBlog
Unity AI Gateway: Runtime Control for AI Agents
Read BlogCase study
GitOps CI/CD for Databricks on AWS for a Global Consumer Data Technology Company
Read Case StudyBlog
AI Agent Context: Closing the Enterprise Context Gap
Read BlogCase study
Self-Service Data Mesh on Azure and Databricks for a Global Biopharma Services Organization
Read Case StudyBlog
Databricks Genie One: Why Grounding Comes First
Read BlogCase study
A Governed Cloud Data Foundation for a Global Biopharma Leader
Read Case StudyCase study
Centralized Clinical Analytics on Azure and Databricks for 13,000 Users
Read Case Study
Also on Databricks
Put the governed foundation to work
See how KPI Partners standardizes data engineering with Lakeflow, serves live data with Lakebase, and delivers trusted answers with Genie.
FAQ
Common Questions About Databricks Unity Catalog
What is Databricks Unity Catalog?
Unity Catalog is the unified governance layer of the Databricks platform. It governs tables, files, machine learning models, and AI assets in one place, with fine-grained access control, automatic lineage down to the column, auditing, and discovery across workspaces and clouds.
What is Unity AI Gateway?
Unity AI Gateway, which Databricks also calls Unity Gateway, is the governance layer for enterprise AI, built on Unity Catalog. It governs models, agents, MCP services, and tools at runtime, with guardrails against PII exposure, prompt injection, and unsafe content, plus spend limits and payload logging.
We are still on the Hive metastore. How do we move?
Databricks supports two paths: Upgrading tables directly to Unity Catalog, or federating the Hive metastore first so Unity Catalog can govern its tables, then upgrading them in place without moving data. We plan the sequence, update jobs and queries, and retire direct Hive metastore access once workloads have moved.
How does attribute-based access control help?
Instead of writing rules table by table, you tag data once, for example as confidential, and policies apply row filters and column masks to every table that carries the tag, now and in the future. Attribute-based access control is generally available in Unity Catalog.
Can Unity Catalog govern data outside Databricks?
Yes, through catalog federation. Unity Catalog can mirror and govern catalogs such as AWS Glue, Snowflake Horizon, and Hive metastores, and it supports open formats including Apache Iceberg, so governance extends across your estate.
How do you keep governance from slowing teams down?
We design policies around governed tags and account groups, so new tables inherit the right access automatically, and Databricks Data Classification can tag sensitive data as it lands. Teams discover and use what they are allowed to, without waiting on access tickets.
Get started
Ready to Govern Data and AI in One Place?
Whether you are moving off the Hive metastore, putting policies in place at scale, or bringing AI agents under governance, KPI Partners will help you find the right starting point.