Databricks, the data and AI company, announced OpenSharing, the next evolution of the open source Delta Sharing protocol for the agentic era. In 2021, Databricks pioneered open data sharing protocols with Delta Sharing, a sub-project within the Delta Lake open source project. Today, Delta Sharing is the most widely adopted open data-sharing protocol, with thousands of customers and partners using it for secure data collaboration, sharing, and monetization. OpenSharing is the next chapter: now a project of the Linux Foundation and the first open protocol to cover agent skills, AI models, and unstructured data. OpenSharing further expands the cross-platform collaboration ecosystem by adding support for Iceberg IRC clients, enabling asset providers to reach a new set of recipients. With new on-premises storage partners adopting OpenSharing, customers can now connect their on-premises assets directly to cloud platforms with no data movement. The OpenSharing project is now available on GitHub.
“Delta Sharing proved the industry would choose open over locked-in,” said Matei Zaharia, Co-founder and CTO of Databricks. “OpenSharing extends that principle to the full AI stack, while expanding the cross-platform ecosystem to Iceberg recipients and on-premises providers. The agentic era deserves an open foundation, and OpenSharing delivers it.”
What OpenSharing Enables
- First open protocol for sharing AI assets: Before OpenSharing, there was no standard way to share agent skills or AI models across organizations, forcing enterprises to rely on expensive custom integrations or single-vendor marketplaces. Now enterprises can publish agent skills and AI models via a single open protocol that any partner can consume, with standard APIs for discovery, authorization, and access, regardless of platform. For example, a data provider may want to share a proprietary agent skill with their customers to make their data readily usable by agents. Instead of manually delivering files that need to be copied over to each customer and constantly updated, OpenSharing enables seamless and secure zero-copy access to agent skills directly at the source.
- Publish once, reach every client: Structured data has long been locked in proprietary data formats, creating vendor lock-in. Delta Sharing enabled enterprises and data providers to break down platform silos and collaborate across clouds, regions, and platforms, with customers receiving shares in Databricks, Apache Spark™, Oracle, Power BI, Tableau, Snowflake, and many more. Today, OpenSharing further expands this cross-platform ecosystem by adding support for Apache Iceberg™ APIs. Providers using OpenSharing can now use the same sharing protocol to reach a larger universe of consumers, including those using Iceberg-native tools.
- Bring modern AI to on-premises data: Organizations that must keep data on-premises or in private clouds no longer have to forgo modern cloud AI and analytics capabilities. Through native integrations with on-premises storage partners, cloud platforms can now connect directly to on-premises data without data movement. Storage partners providing a managed OpenSharing service today include Everpure, MinIO, and Qumulo, with additional partners coming soon, including Cohesity, Commvault, HPE, NetApp, Nutanix, Rubrik, and VAST Data.
Industry Support for OpenSharing
“We believe in open AI ecosystems and are excited to collaborate with Databricks on providing a standard, secure way to discover and authorize access to AI assets,” said Alexander Embiricos, Head of Enterprise Product at OpenAI.
“AI has the potential to transform how the travel industry operates and serves travelers, but only if it is trusted and applied in a meaningful way,” said Vvivi (Rongrong) Hu, Chief Strategy Officer at Amadeus. “At Amadeus, we act as a system of record and the embedded execution layer for the industry, helping orchestrate AI in an integrated and scalable way across the travel ecosystem. We’re excited to be working with Databricks to help enable the open and secure exchange of data and AI assets needed to deliver this value.”
“Atlassian Analytics launched data shares, leveraging OpenSharing from Databricks, to unlock access to critical cloud data for our customers at scale,” said Ben Jackson, Senior Group Product Manager, Data & Analytics, Atlassian. “It provides flexibility and accelerates customers’ time to insight. OpenSharing’s ecosystem of connectors enables customers to easily power their environments with data directly from the Atlassian Data Lake.”
“Our customers rely on our AI-ready data and insights to deliver critical value to their clients,” said Ron Lefferts, Divisional CEO of Data & Analytics at LSEG. “We chose OpenSharing because it’s consistent with our LSEG Everywhere strategy. It allows any customer to use our data in any tool or any cloud with any model.”
“Enterprises should not have to choose between keeping sensitive data on-premises and using modern AI and analytics platforms to extract value from it,” said AB Periasamy, Co-Founder and Co-CEO of MinIO. “Native open source OpenSharing in AIStor opens up access to data that cannot move. This creates a foundation for unlocking the vast untapped AI value hidden across enterprise data environments.”
“We chose OpenSharing for SAP Business Data Cloud because it is the open protocol for sharing data and AI assets, and allows us to reach customers wherever they are,” said Senthil Krishnapillai, VP and Head of Cloud Services at SAP. “We’re excited to continue partnering with Databricks to lay the open foundation for AI-first collaboration.”
“Financial data is the lifeblood of our customers’ operations, and they require the flexibility to analyze it in their preferred environments,” said Emily Sands, Head of Data and AI at Stripe. “Our partnership with Databricks is built on a shared vision of openness. Leveraging OpenSharing natively within Stripe Data Pipeline ensures that our users can securely and effortlessly unlock advanced analytics and AI capabilities on their customer, billing, and transaction data.”
“With Acxiom’s Real ID available natively via the OpenSharing protocol, enterprise marketers can connect data directly where it already lives,” said Greg Morton, Head of Ecosystem Growth & Industry Partner at Acxiom. “They can make their data interoperable across identifiers, platforms, partners, and clouds, unlocking insights from otherwise inaccessible partner data sources for collaborative and truly connected audience engagement, analytics, and measurement.”
