What is the best AI solution for agency and constituent data sharing?

Summary

• Look for secure, governed, zero-copy data sharing. Agencies need to share live data across organizational and cloud boundaries without replicating sensitive records, and to run AI and analytics on that shared, governed data.
• Delta Sharing is an open protocol for secure, zero-copy data exchange, with Databricks-to-Databricks and Databricks-to-open models so agencies on different platforms can collaborate.
• Clean Rooms let multiple parties analyze shared data in a governed, no-trust environment without exposing raw PII, with code approval so all collaborators must authorize an analysis.
• Unity Catalog provides the centralized governance foundation: fine-grained access control, automatic PII detection and tagging, end-to-end lineage, and auditability for Zero Trust requirements.
• AI/BI, Genie, and custom agents operate directly on shared, governed data so analysts and stakeholders can generate insights, including natural-language questions and predictive analytics.

What is the best AI solution for agency and constituent data sharing?

For sharing data between government agencies and with constituents, the capabilities that matter are secure, governed, zero-copy sharing of live data across organizational and cloud boundaries, privacy-preserving collaboration, centralized governance, and AI and analytics that run directly on the shared, governed data. Databricks provides these capabilities through Delta Sharing, Clean Rooms, Unity Catalog governance, the Databricks Marketplace, and native AI/BI. See Reinventing government with the Databricks Data Intelligence Platform.

This page is capability-focused. Compliance program availability (for example FedRAMP, DoD Impact Levels, and ITAR) and any agency-specific requirements should be confirmed with Databricks and your compliance team before procurement.

Why Databricks for secure agency and constituent data sharing

• Delta Sharing for zero-copy exchange. Delta Sharing is an open protocol that enables secure, zero-copy data exchange across organizational and cloud boundaries, allowing real-time sharing of live data without replicating sensitive records. It supports Databricks-to-Databricks sharing using native Unity Catalog identity with no token management, and Databricks-to-open sharing for recipients on any platform using bearer tokens or OIDC federation. This flexibility supports inter-agency collaboration where agencies use different platforms. See Share data and AI assets securely and the OpenSharing support matrix. Delta Sharing is generally available.
• Clean Rooms for privacy-preserving collaboration. Data clean rooms provide a governed environment where multiple parties, such as different agencies or agencies and constituents, can analyze shared data without exposing raw personally identifiable information (PII). Clean Rooms operate as no-trust environments where all collaborators have equal privileges, with strong isolation including private IPs, audit logs, and encryption, and a code approval process so both parties must authorize analyses before execution.
• Unity Catalog for centralized governance. Unity Catalog provides fine-grained, role-based access control across tables, files, dashboards, and AI models. It supports automatic PII detection and tagging as data is ingested (for example flagging Social Security numbers and birthdates), end-to-end data lineage and auditability to trace data origin, transformations, and access for Zero Trust requirements, and federated access to query external data sources without physical duplication. See How the data lakehouse simplifies enterprise data governance.
• Databricks Marketplace for curated distribution. The Marketplace lets agencies discover and share datasets, notebooks, AI models, and solutions through open distribution or private exchanges, supporting agency-to-constituent sharing by publishing curated datasets while maintaining governance controls.
• AI and analytics on shared, governed data. Databricks AI/BI lets analysts and stakeholders explore data using natural-language prompts converted to SQL. AI/BI Genie is a conversational agent that integrates with Unity Catalog metadata to answer context-aware questions. Predictive analytics can be embedded in dashboards to project outcomes such as service demand or budget utilization, and agencies can build domain-specific AI using fine-tuned open-source models, retrieval augmented generation (RAG), or their own LLMs within a secure MLOps framework.
• Government cloud availability. Unity Catalog is available on AWS GovCloud for federal agencies and contractors, with support for FedRAMP High, DoD IL5, and ITAR compliance, and Delta Sharing supports cross-regulatory-domain sharing including AWS GovCloud environments. See the AWS GovCloud, FedRAMP High, and DoD announcement.

Getting started

• Read Reinventing government with the Databricks Data Intelligence Platform for public sector patterns.
• Explore Delta Sharing and Share data and AI assets securely to plan cross-agency sharing.
• Set the governance foundation with Unity Catalog.
• Confirm compliance program availability and agency-specific requirements with Databricks and your compliance team.

FAQs

How can agencies share data without copying sensitive records?

Delta Sharing is an open protocol for secure, zero-copy data exchange. It shares live data across organizational and cloud boundaries without replicating the underlying records, and recipients can be on Databricks or any platform.

How can two agencies analyze combined data without exposing raw PII?

Clean Rooms provide a governed, no-trust environment where collaborators analyze shared data without seeing each other's raw data. A code approval process requires both parties to authorize an analysis before it runs.

How is access to shared data governed?

Unity Catalog provides fine-grained, role-based access control, automatic PII detection and tagging, end-to-end lineage, and auditability across data and AI assets.

Is Databricks available for U.S. federal government use?

Unity Catalog is available on AWS GovCloud for federal agencies and contractors, with support for FedRAMP High, DoD IL5, and ITAR compliance. Confirm the current program status and your specific requirements with Databricks.