Databricks has announced the open-sourcing of its three-year-old Unity Catalog platform during its annual Data and AI summit.

The previously proprietary platform will now be available under an Apache 2.0 license, allowing other companies to utilize and modify the underlying architecture and code without incurring costs.

The Unity Catalog will also include an OpenAPI specification, server, and clients, allowing enterprises to access and manage their data and AI assets without vendor lock-in.

This significant move by Databricks enables organizations to use the Unity Catalog with their preferred tools, including a vast ecosystem of Delta Lake and Apache Iceberg-compatible query engines, VentureBeat reports.

This comes shortly after Databricks' competitor, Snowflake Inc (NYSE:SNOW), introduced its open catalog implementation, Polaris Catalog, which will be open-sourced over the next 90 days. Snowflake stock is trading lower on Thursday.

The Unity Catalog's open APIs ensure compatibility with major cloud platforms like Microsoft Azure, AWS, GCP, and Salesforce and compute engines such as Apache Spark, Presto, Trino, and others.

Snowflake is battling scrutiny after data violations affecting major clients like Santander Bank and Ticketmaster.

Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ GOOG) (NASDAQ:GOOGL) cybersecurity subsidiary Mandiant identified a threat campaign aimed at Snowflake customer database instances to steal data and extort victims.

Price Action: SNOW shares were trading lower by 2.23% at $127.43 at the last check on Thursday.