Business users don’t use notebooks. Full stop. And for that reason, most organizations don’t have business users accessing the Databricks UI. This has always been a fundamental flaw in Databricks’ push to democratize data and AI. This disconnect is almost enshrined in the medallion architecture: Bronze is for system accounts, data scientists with notebooks use the Silver layer, and Gold is for business users with reporting tools. This approach has been enough to take an organization part of the way towards self-service analytics. This approach is not working for GenAI, though. This was a major frustration with Genie Spaces. It was a tool made for business users but embedded in an IT interface. Databricks One is looking to change all that.
Using Databricks One
Databricks One is a unified platform experience that provides business users with a single point of entry into their data ecosystem. It removes technical complexity and offers a curated environment to interact with data, AI models, dashboards, and apps efficiently. Core features of Databricks One include:
- AI/BI Dashboards: Users can view, explore, and drill into key KPIs and metrics without technical setup.
- AI/BI Genie: A conversational AI interface allowing users to ask natural language questions like “Why did sales drop in April?” or “What are the top-performing regions?”
- Custom Databricks Apps: Tailored applications that combine analytics, workflows, and AI models to meet specific business needs.
- Content Browsing by Domain: Content is organized into relevant business areas such as “Customer 360” and “Marketing Campaign Performance,” fostering easy discovery and collaboration.
Administering Databricks One
Administrators can give users access to Databricks One via a consumer access entitlement. This is a basic, read-only entry point for business users that gives access to a simplified workspace that focuses on consuming dashboards, Genie spaces and Apps. Naturally, users will be working with Unity Catalog’s unified data access controls to maintain governance and security.
Conclusion
This is a very short blog because I try not to comment too early on pre-release features and Databricks One is scheduled for a beta release later this summer. This is more than just an incremental feature for a lot of our enterprise clients, though. I am looking at Databricks One as a fundamental architectural component for large enterprise implementations. I feel this is a huge step forward for practical data and intelligence democratization and I was just too excited to wait for more details.
Perficient is a Databricks Elite Partner. Contact us to learn more about how to empower your teams with the right tools, processes, and training to unlock your data’s full potential across your enterprise.
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