Weekly Databricks

What shipped

• Governance and compliance controls: MLflow trace storage in Unity Catalog tables will be available by default for workspaces with the compliance security profile enabled in mid-August 2026. (16 Jul)
• Genie and AI/BI experiences: Search and reuse past conversations : You can now search your past Genie One conversations and bring previous context into your current conversation. (16 Jul)
• Genie and AI/BI experiences: Save a chat as a Genie Agent : You can now save a Genie One thread as a Genie Agent. (16 Jul)
• Genie and AI/BI experiences: Git folders (GA) : Git folders for dashboards are now generally available. See Version control dashboards with Git . (16 Jul)
• Scala and Java UDFs in Unity Catalog are now generally available: You can now register Scala and Java user-defined functions (UDFs) in Unity Catalog and reuse them across notebooks, jobs, and SQL warehouses with Unity Catalog governance. (16 Jul)
• Governed tags system table will be available in Beta: Azure Databricks plans to launch the system.governance.governed_tags system table in Beta. (15 Jul)
• Custom URLs for your Azure Databricks account: You can now claim and enable a Custom URL that gives your Azure Databricks account a single, branded entry point (for example, acme.databricks.com ) for all users and workspaces. (15 Jul)
• Governance and compliance controls: Data Classification is now available by default for workspaces with the compliance security profile enabled and either C5 or TISAX controls selected. (15 Jul)
• Governance and compliance controls: Lakebase is now SOC 2 Type 2 compliant. For our SOC reports, please ask your Databricks account team or see Compliance . (14 Jul)
• Serverless compute is now available in the Azure UK West region: Serverless compute for notebooks, jobs, pipelines, and SQL warehouses, along with serverless private connectivity, is now generally available in the Azure UK West ( ukwest ) region. (14 Jul)
• Secure data sharing: Streaming reads from OpenSharing tables now support the Trigger.AvailableNow trigger. (14 Jul)
• Governance and compliance controls: The Activity details toggle in the SQL warehouse monitoring UI is now generally available. (13 Jul)

Why it matters

• Governance and compliance controls: The platform is tightening controls around sensitive metadata, audit trails and compliance-profile behaviour.
• Genie and AI/BI experiences: Databricks is expanding conversational analytics and workspace-native AI experiences for business users.
• Scala and Java UDFs in Unity Catalog are now generally available: You can now register Scala and Java user-defined functions (UDFs) in Unity Catalog and reuse them across notebooks, jobs, and SQL warehouses with Unity Catalog governance.
• Governed tags system table will be available in Beta: Azure Databricks plans to launch the system.governance.governed_tags system table in Beta.
• Custom URLs for your Azure Databricks account: You can now claim and enable a Custom URL that gives your Azure Databricks account a single, branded entry point (for example, acme.databricks.com ) for all users and workspaces.
• Serverless compute is now available in the Azure UK West region: Serverless compute for notebooks, jobs, pipelines, and SQL warehouses, along with serverless private connectivity, is now generally available in the Azure UK West ( ukwest ) region. See Serverless availability .
• Secure data sharing: Sharing updates point to more governed external collaboration around data products and AI/BI assets.

How data teams could use it

• Governance and compliance controls: Security teams should check whether monitoring, troubleshooting or audit workflows need adjusting as redaction and compliance defaults change.
• Genie and AI/BI experiences: Analytics teams can test where Genie reduces ad hoc report queues while keeping governed metrics and permissions in place.
• Scala and Java UDFs in Unity Catalog are now generally available: Assess whether it affects platform governance, data engineering productivity, AI/BI adoption, sharing controls or workspace operations.
• Governed tags system table will be available in Beta: Assess whether it affects platform governance, data engineering productivity, AI/BI adoption, sharing controls or workspace operations.
• Custom URLs for your Azure Databricks account: Assess whether it affects platform governance, data engineering productivity, AI/BI adoption, sharing controls or workspace operations.
• Serverless compute is now available in the Azure UK West region: Assess whether it affects platform governance, data engineering productivity, AI/BI adoption, sharing controls or workspace operations.
• Secure data sharing: Teams with partner analytics or customer-facing data products should review billing, access and external-sharing controls.

Editorial read

Databricks is continuing to package the lakehouse as an operating layer for data products: more AI/BI entry points for business users, more managed pipeline tooling for engineers, and more governance around sharing, audit data and external access. The practical theme is adoption with controls: turn on the useful productivity features, but pair them with app governance, metric ownership and security review.