Databricks announces partnerships to boost data sharing

Databricks, a prominent data and AI company, has announced a series of strategic partnerships aimed at enhancing data sharing and collaboration.

The new alliances include industry giants such as Shutterstock, T-Mobile, and Tableau. These partners are set to utilise Delta Sharing, an open, flexible, and secure method for sharing live data across various cloud platforms, through the Databricks Data Intelligence Platform.

The introduction of these partnerships is expected to enable cross-platform and cross-cloud collaborations with customers and partners while avoiding vendor lock-in. This development is particularly significant for organisations seeking to implement AI, as it allows for secure and easy sharing of data and AI assets across different regions, clouds, and platforms.

Delta Sharing, at the core of these collaborations, provides a secure approach to sharing live data across clouds, platforms, and regions.

The platform also features Databricks Marketplace, which offers a space for discovering, evaluating, and installing data and AI assets. This marketplace aims to accelerate innovation by simplifying data sharing and collaboration.

Another notable feature is Databricks Clean Rooms, which provides a privacy-safe environment for data collaboration without direct access to sensitive information. Unlike other similar solutions on the market, it supports various workloads and languages, including native support for machine learning and AI using Python. This system allows organisations to collaborate securely across different clouds and platforms without data replication.

Matei Zaharia, Co-Founder and CTO at Databricks, emphasised the importance of the platform.

"Today, it’s imperative that every business can collaborate with partners and customers on data and AI regardless of their choice of platform or cloud. The Databricks Data Intelligence Platform is built for open sharing and collaboration."

Zaharia also expressed excitement about the ongoing product innovation with Clean Rooms and the addition of new strategic partners to their open ecosystem.

Databricks' commitment to collaboration has shown significant results, with over 16,000 data recipients using Delta Sharing for data and AI asset exchange across clouds, and a 300% year-over-year growth in active Delta Shares. The Databricks Marketplace also boasts over 2,000 listings, including datasets, AI models, and solution accelerators—a 320% year-over-year increase in listings. Notably, 40% of Delta Sharing connections are to non-Databricks platforms, such as Apache Spark™, Excel, pandas, PowerBI, and Tableau, facilitated by open connectors.

The new partnerships span across various industries including financial services, healthcare, marketing, advertising, and life sciences. For instance, Acxiom plans to utilise Delta Sharing to enhance its Real ID™ product suite's reach, offering tailored solutions for simplified data integration. Similarly, Atlassian will leverage Delta Sharing to boost data flexibility and accelerate time-to-insight for their customers through Atlassian Analytics.

HealthVerity has deepened its partnership with Databricks to provide de-identified healthcare data via the Databricks Marketplace, aimed at accelerating scientific discoveries and transformative health outcomes. LiveRamp and Databricks Clean Rooms are joining forces to offer marketers tools for enhanced personalisation and customer modelling while protecting privacy.

S&P Global is set to use Delta Sharing to improve data distribution capabilities, making content sets more accessible. Shutterstock will bring its vast library of nearly a billion creative content assets to the Databricks Marketplace to promote responsible AI and ML initiatives across various industries.

Stocktwits will exclusively list its "social finance" dataset on the Databricks Marketplace, making it the first platform to offer such data for investors and traders.

T-Mobile's partnership with Databricks will enable customers to utilise its capabilities to better understand and engage with their customers, while Tableau’s new Delta Sharing connector aims to enhance value from data through advanced analytics. TetraScience will use Delta Sharing to drive scientific collaboration and innovation, particularly in the pharmaceutical sector.

The Trade Desk plans to leverage Databricks' platform to enhance digital media buying and real-time insight harnessing for more effective advertising campaigns.

These partnerships underscore Databricks' strategy to expand its open ecosystem, further enabling seamless and secure data sharing and collaboration across industries and platforms.