Delta Sharing fundamentals

Introduction to Databricks Lakehouse

Gang Wang

Senior Data Scientist

The data sharing problem

Traditional sharing: export, email, upload
Data goes stale immediately
Multiple copies across organizations
No control once the file leaves your hands

recraft: half: A person struggling to carry multiple heavy boxes of files through a door, representing the burden of traditional data sharing through file exports

What is Delta Sharing?

architecture: Delta Sharing Protocol

No copies - recipients query live data through the Delta Sharing protocol
Revoke instantly - remove access with a single command

Creating a share

-- Create a share
CREATE SHARE partner_data;

-- Add a gold table to the share
ALTER SHARE partner_data
ADD TABLE production.sales
  .gold_daily_revenue;

A share is a named collection of tables
Add tables from any catalog in Unity Catalog
Typically share gold layer data - clean, aggregated, business-ready

Adding recipients

-- Create a recipient
CREATE RECIPIENT acme_corp;

-- Grant the recipient access
GRANT SELECT ON SHARE partner_data
TO RECIPIENT acme_corp;

A recipient represents an organization or person
They receive an activation link to set up access
You control which shares each recipient can see

The library card analogy

Instead of photocopying a book (exporting data), you issue a library card (a share)
The recipient reads the original in real time
You can revoke the card at any time

recraft: half: A person handing a library card to another person in front of a grand library building, representing granting live data access instead of copying data

Summary

Delta Sharing provides live, read-only access to data - no copies
Create a share, add gold-layer tables, grant access to recipients
Recipients query data in real time through the Delta Sharing protocol
Revoke access instantly when the relationship ends

Let's practice!

Introduction to Databricks Lakehouse