> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.nexalis.io/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Introduction

# Nexalis Cloud

Welcome to **Nexalis Cloud** documentation. This guide explains how to access and consume industrial data from the Nexalis Platform. Whether you're a data engineer building pipelines, an analyst creating dashboards, or a developer integrating real-time data into applications, Nexalis Cloud provides flexible access patterns to fit your workflow.

***

## Two Ways to Access Your Data

Nexalis Cloud offers two complementary data access methods, each optimized for different use cases:

### 1. Real-Time API

A high-performance **HTTP API** for querying time-series data in real time. This API is designed for:

* **Real-time applications** requiring sub-second response times
* **Custom calculation** with advanced time-series functions
* **Analytics** and operational dashboards
* **Event-driven architectures** and alerting systems

Perfect for applications that need the latest sensor readings or want to query historical data with custom needs.

[Learn more about the Real-Time API →](./real-time-api)

***

### 2. Lakehouse Sharing

**Read-only access to your data** through native lakehouse sharing protocols. Nexalis deploys your data on the lakehouse platform and cloud region that matches your infrastructure — whether that's **Databricks**, **Snowflake**, or **Microsoft Fabric** on **AWS**, **Azure**, or **GCP**. You connect using native data sharing from your preferred lakehouse platform:

#### Three Native Connection Options

* **Databricks-to-Databricks** — Delta Sharing protocol for read-only table access
* **Fabric-to-Fabric** — OneLake shortcuts and external data shares
* **Snowflake-to-Snowflake** — Native data sharing with secure views

Nexalis matches your specific combination of cloud provider, lakehouse platform, and region to ensure seamless, cost-effective data sharing with zero egress fees.

#### Benefits

* **Zero data replication** — Data stays in Nexalis lakehouse, you query it directly
* **Native integration** — Works seamlessly with your existing lakehouse platform
* **Optimized deployment** — Data hosted in the same cloud provider and region as your infrastructure
* **Cost efficiency** — Zero cloud egress fees, pay only for your own lakehouse service usage
* **Read-only security** — Your access is secure and restricted to approved tables
* **Always up-to-date & maintained** — Nexalis continuously refreshes and maintains the shared tables (corrections, schema evolution), so consumers always query trusted data.

[Learn more about Databricks integration →](./lakehouse-data-sharing/databricks-to-databricks)\
[Learn more about Fabric integration →](./lakehouse-data-sharing/fabric-to-fabric)\
**Snowflake-to-Snowflake** documentation is coming soon. In the meantime, please consult: [https://docs.snowflake.com/en/user-guide/data-sharing-intro](https://docs.snowflake.com/en/user-guide/data-sharing-intro)

***

## Choosing Your Access Method

| **Access Method**     | **Best For**                                           | **Latency**               | **Platforms**                 |
| --------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------ | ------------------------- | ----------------------------- |
| **Real-Time API**     | Operational dashboards, real-time apps, custom queries | seconds                   | Any (HTTP/JSON)               |
| **Lakehouse Sharing** | Analytics, ML/AI, BI tools, data warehouses            | Minutes (table snapshots) | Databricks, Fabric, Snowflake |

### When to Use Real-Time API

✅ Historical data access\
✅ Building real-time monitoring dashboards\
✅ Need the absolute latest sensor readings\
✅ Custom time-series calculations (e.g., "5-minute averages")\
✅ Integration with alerting, notification and work order management systems\
✅ Low-latency analytics

### When to Use Lakehouse Sharing

✅ Running SQL analytics and BI queries\
✅ Training machine learning / AI models\
✅ Building batch data pipelines\
✅ Creating historical trend analysis\
✅ Already using Databricks, Fabric, or Snowflake\
✅ Need native lakehouse integration with zero data replication

**Pro Tip:** Many users use both! The Real-Time API powers operational dashboards while lakehouse sharing feeds analytical workloads and ML pipelines.

***

## Getting Started

### Step 1: Choose Your Access Method(s)

* For real-time time-series API → [Real-Time API Guide](./real-time-api)
* For Databricks lakehouse → [Databricks-to-Databricks Setup](./delta-sharing/databricks-to-databricks)
* For Microsoft Fabric lakehouse → [Fabric-to-Fabric Setup](./delta-sharing/fabric-to-fabric)
* For Snowflake lakehouse → Coming soon. In the meantime, please consult: [https://docs.snowflake.com/en/user-guide/data-sharing-intro](https://docs.snowflake.com/en/user-guide/data-sharing-intro)

(For the lakehouse methods, review the [Data Tables documentation](./lakehouse-data-sharing/data-structure/data-tables) to understand the schema and structure of your tables.
)

### Step 2: Request Access

Contact your Nexalis account manager or email [contact@nexalis.io](mailto:contact@nexalis.io) with:

* Your preferred access method(s)
* Your lakehouse platform (Databricks, Fabric, or Snowflake)
* Your cloud provider (AWS, Azure, or GCP) and preferred region
* Azure Tenant ID (for Fabric), Databricks Workspace details, or Snowflake Account ID

***

## Cloud-Native Architecture

Nexalis Cloud is built on modern cloud-native principles:

* **Flexible deployment** — We deploy on the cloud provider, lakehouse platform, and region that matches your infrastructure
* **Three lakehouse platforms** — Support for Databricks, Microsoft Fabric, and Snowflake
* **Native sharing protocols** — Connect using your lakehouse platform's native capabilities
* **Cost-optimized** — Minimize egress fees by matching your cloud provider and region
* **Scalable** — Automatically handles thousands of devices and millions of data points
* **Secure** — Encryption in transit and at rest, read-only access control

***

## Support

Need help getting started or have questions about your deployment?

📧 Email: [contact@nexalis.io](mailto:contact@nexalis.io)\
📚 Documentation: Continue exploring this guide for detailed setup instructions

***

## References

* [Databricks Delta Sharing](https://www.databricks.com/product/delta-sharing)
* [Microsoft Fabric OneLake](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/fabric/onelake/)
* [Snowflake Secure Data Sharing](https://docs.snowflake.com/en/user-guide/data-sharing-intro)