Purview and Platform Catalogues — Azure Databricks Unity Catalog

Enterprise data estates often contain platform-specific catalogues as well as an enterprise governance layer.

Azure Databricks Unity Catalog

Unity Catalog governs Databricks data objects and captures platform-native metadata and lineage across the Databricks environment.

Microsoft Purview

Microsoft Purview can scan Unity Catalog metadata such as metastores, catalogs, schemas, tables, views, columns and supported lineage into Data Map, then expose governed context through Unified Catalog.

Architecture principle

The two catalogues do not need to compete for the same purpose. Unity Catalog can remain the platform-level control plane for Databricks while Purview contributes an enterprise-wide discovery and governance layer across multiple technologies.

Architects should define which system is authoritative for each type of metadata, how metadata is exchanged, and what users should expect to discover in each experience.