Customer Managed

In the Customer Managed model, the customer owns and operates everything—their Databricks workspace, infrastructure, and data. The partner provides software, guidance, or templates that the customer deploys and manages themselves.

note

Due to limitations in telemetry and application management, program benefits are limited for Customer Managed deployments.

Key Characteristics

Aspect	Description
Control	Customer has full control and responsibility
Partner role	Partner provides enablement rather than operations
Flexibility	Maximum flexibility but requires customer expertise
Databricks account	Customer owns and manages their Databricks account

Common Use Cases

• Customers with mature platform teams
• Highly regulated environments with strict operational controls
• Organizations requiring full autonomy over their data platform
• SI Partners building accelerators to deploy at their customers

What Partners Provide

In a Customer Managed model, partners typically deliver:

Software Artifacts

• Pre-built notebooks and pipelines
• Databricks Asset Bundles (DABs) for reproducible deployments
• Terraform modules for infrastructure provisioning
• Python packages or libraries

Documentation and Guidance

• Architecture blueprints and reference designs
• Deployment guides and runbooks
• Best practices documentation
• Training materials

Templates and Accelerators

• Sample dashboards and reports
• Data model definitions
• ML model templates
• Integration patterns

Implementation Approach

Packaging for Customer Deployment

Use infrastructure-as-code tools to package your solution:

Tool	Use Case
Databricks Asset Bundles	Jobs, pipelines, notebooks, and ML experiments
Terraform	Workspace configuration, Unity Catalog setup, identity management
Python packages	Reusable libraries and custom functions

Operational Considerations

Support Model

Define clear boundaries for support:

Responsibility	Partner	Customer
Software bugs and features	✅
Infrastructure configuration		✅
Performance tuning	Guidance	✅
Security and compliance	Guidance	✅
Upgrades and patching	Software updates	✅

Version Management

• Provide clear versioning for all artifacts
• Document upgrade paths and breaking changes
• Consider backward compatibility for long-term customers

What's Next

• Automation — Terraform and DABs for packaging solutions
• Onboarding — Customer onboarding workflows
• Cost Management — Telemetry in customer-managed environments