About the Customer

A values-based, R&D-driven global biopharmaceutical enterprise headquartered in Japan with presence in over 80 countries and a legacy of innovation that focuses on translating science into highly innovative medicines. Powered by a strong commitment to patient outcomes, digital transformation, and data-driven decision-making to accelerate research in global health improvement and a brighter future for the world.

The Challenges Faced

As our customer continued to evolve its global data platform, they faced significant governance and scalability challenges. Their existing Hive Metastore setup lacked the flexibility and precision required to support modern compliance, security, and operational demands. Key challenges included:

• Complex Global Governance: Enforcing secure, scalable data access and control across business units globally due to complex stakeholder relationships and evolving ownership, making governance and compliance difficult to maintain
• Legacy Infrastructure Costs: High operational overhead due to legacy Hive Metastore database limitations
• Technical Debt: Lack of best practices and code standards for larger scalability and accessibility, leading to complexity in decommissioning legacy Hive Metastore while ensuring continuity for mission-critical jobs
• Migration Complexity: Identifying and upgrading legacy objects and non-compliant configurations across hundreds of thousands of assets

How Koantek Responded

To overcome these challenges and enable scalable governance while preparing for enterprise AI adoption, the organization required a future-ready solution and a modern approach to managing data assets across regions. Koantek deployed its UC Unlocked Unity Catalog Upgrade Brickbuilder Solution to migrate the customer's workload to Databricks Unity Catalog for all 8 business units across 3 regions.

Leveraging Koantek's proven UC Unlocked methodology, our team brought deep technical expertise that went far beyond implementation, combining engineering precision, project leadership, and cross-functional alignment to deliver a modern data governance architecture. This comprehensive approach laid the foundation for data compliance, operational efficiency, and future growth.

Key Implementation Highlights:

• Global Architecture Design: Regional Metastores (US, Japan, Europe) deployed using Koantek's Terraform Accelerator to comply with data residency policies
• Massive Scale Migration: 300,000+ metadata objects and 200+ mission-critical jobs migrated to Unity Catalog using UC Unlocked's automated migration scripts
• Comprehensive Governance: 500+ clusters governed under UC with significant efficiency gains through Koantek's proprietary automation
• Security Implementation: Streamlined access control deployed using UC Unlocked's fine-grained RBAC mapping capabilities to enhance compliance and audit readiness
• Automated Validation: Koantek’s validation and observability framework provided automated migration scripts and dashboard validations for a smooth transition and accurate invoicing
• Zero-Downtime Execution: Robust fallback strategies and meticulous project governance enabled zero issues during the hypercare phase

The Outcome: Transformational Results

Enhanced Data Governance and Security

• 100% Mission-Critical Workload Migration: All workloads successfully migrated with no policy violations, thanks to UC Unlocked's phased migration approach
• Enterprise-Grade Compliance: Enhanced compliance via object-level granular access controls across all business units, implemented through UC Unlocked's governance framework
• Global Standardization: Business unit-specific catalogs support secure, scalable cross-region access and global policy standardization

Operational Efficiency Gains

• 40% Reduction in Governance Overhead: Hive Metastore decommissioning achieved through UC Unlocked's automated deprecation processes
• 20% Improvement in Job Success: Job execution success improved post-migration due to streamlined access patterns optimized by Koantek's solution
• 15-20% Reduction in Provisioning Effort: Managed compute clusters now provisioned more efficiently using Unity Catalog's native capabilities

Accelerated Collaboration and Data Access

• 25% Increase in Cross-Unit Data Sharing: UC Unlocked's architecture design unlocked broader collaboration opportunities
• 30% Faster Time-to-Data: Analysts now access data more quickly, enabling faster insights and decisions
• Enhanced Data Discovery: Unity Catalog's centralized governance model simplified data discovery across the enterprise

Improved Cost Transparency and Control

• Precise Chargeback Models: Usage-based catalog tagging enabled accurate cost allocation, a key feature of UC Unlocked's FinOps capabilities
• Clear Usage Visibility: One business unit now drives 60% of total UC billing, providing clear insights into consumption patterns
• 67% Asset Monetization: Enterprise-wide data assets now effectively monetized via Unity Catalog's governance framework

The UC Unlocked Advantage

This transformation was made possible by Koantek's UC Unlocked solution, which combines:

• 80% Task Automation: Through Terraform-based Infrastructure as Code and proprietary automation scripts
• Flexible Deployment Options: Bronze, Silver, and Gold tiers allowed the customer to scale their engagement based on complexity
• Industry-Specific Compliance: Automated tagging and controls for healthcare compliance requirements
• Expert Advisory Services: Koantek's Databricks Champions provided continuous guidance throughout the migration

Looking Forward

With Unity Catalog now serving as the foundation of their data governance strategy, this global biopharmaceutical leader is positioned to accelerate their AI and analytics initiatives. The successful migration demonstrates how Koantek's UC Unlocked solution enables enterprises to modernize their data platforms while maintaining operational continuity and compliance.

The partnership continues as the organization explores advanced Unity Catalog capabilities, including enhanced lineage tracking, advanced cost governance, and preparation for next-generation AI workloads, all supported by Koantek's ongoing advisory services and UC Unlocked.

Learn more about how Koantek's UC Unlocked can transform your organization's data governance journey. Contact us to discuss your Unity Catalog upgrade needs.

‍