Overview
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A leading logistics provider with operations across North America and Australia embarked on a journey to modernize its growing analytics infrastructure. The company, known for its expansive network of short line railroads, terminals, ports, and 3PL logistics services, was experiencing rapid growth in its Unified Analytics Platform (UAP) and Databricks usage. However, legacy infrastructure and technical debt began to constrain operational agility and governance.

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To address these challenges, the organization partnered with Koantek to lead a comprehensive migration from Hive Metastore (HMS) to Databricks Unity Catalog (UC). This resulted in a modern, secure, and centralized data governance architecture that enables scalable growth, improved performance, and enhanced compliance.
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Key Impacts
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• 100% centralized metadata improved data lineage & discoverability
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• Accelerated analytics & adoption by streamlining access management empowering data teams to work more efficiently.
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• Future-Ready scalable architecture supporting evolving business needs as well as laying the foundation for expanding analytics and AI use cases
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Challenges Faced by Customer
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Customer’s Unified Analytic Platform (UAP) was rapidly growing, and their databricks footprint was becoming much larger.  They desperately needed to upgrade to Unity Catalog to harness the features that came along with it, but didn’t have the time or expertise to efficiently accomplish that.

From a technical standpoint, they required a scalable, secure, and centralized data governance framework to manage these growing data assets efficiently. The existing Hive Metastore (HMS) lacked governance, auditability, and fine-grained access control, leading to challenges such as:

• Decentralized Metadata Management - Metadata was siloed across multiple workspaces, limiting discoverability, consistency, and auditability.
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• Inefficient Access Control - Manual and workspace-specific access policies led to governance gaps and potential security risks. A centralized, role-based access model was needed.
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• Data Performance Bottlenecks - Outdated table structures, legacy RDDs, and limitations in the HMS architecture impacted performance and scalability.
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• Limited Resources to Modernize - With a strong focus on customer operations, internal teams lacked the time and expertise to plan and execute the required transformation.
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How Koantek Responded
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In a time when technology advancements are happening so rapidly, you’re just falling behind that much more quickly. So, it’s imperative you find a way to make sure that doesn’t happen. That’s where Koantek was able to step in and help. Koantek designed and executed a comprehensive migration strategy focused on performance, governance, and operational continuity. The project encompassed four major pillars:

1. Table & Schema Migration

• 1498 tables successfully migrated.
• 89 databases restructured under 47+ schemas in Unity Catalog.
• Migration from HMS-managed to UC-managed and UC-external tables using CTAS, DEEP CLONE, and SYNC Utility.
• Table naming conventions preserved; views manually upgraded.

2. Cluster & Workspace Modernization

• Upgraded compute clusters with managed identities and Databricks Runtime 13.3 LTS.
• Workspaces bound to a centralized Unity Catalog metastore, enabling seamless multi-environment data access 
• Updated access modes to shared, aligning with Unity Catalog best practices.

3. Code & Job Migration

• 105 notebooks updated to adopt Unity Catalog structure
• Legacy RDDs replaced with efficient DataFrame-based processing.
• Modified DBFS paths to reflect Unity Catalog’s storage patterns.
• Migrated 48 ETL jobs; ensured integration with existing ADF pipelines.
• Pre- and post-migration validations ensured complete data integrity.

4. Security & Automation

• Centralized governance with granular, role-based access controls at metastore, catalog, schema, and table levels.
• External locations mapped to ADLS Gen2 with secure access credentials.
• Infrastructure-as-Code (IaC) via Terraform enabled:
  
  
  • Automated provisioning of Unity Catalog components.
  • Seamless deployment of access policies, schemas, external locations, and storage credentials.

Koantek’s blend of technical expertise, hands-on collaboration, and automation-driven delivery helped turn a complex migration into a seamless transformation. Their ability to modernize infrastructure while preserving operational continuity enabled this leading logistics provider to unlock the full potential of Databricks’ Data Intelligence Platform.

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Results
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Enhanced Governance & Compliance

• 100% centralized metadata storage across environments.
• Improved auditability, lineage tracking, and regulatory compliance.
• Elimination of manual access control, replaced by secure, automated, role-based permissions.
  
  

Improved Performance & Efficiency

• Migration to DataFrames significantly reduced memory overhead and improved job execution.
• Schema optimizations led to better workload distribution and query performance.
  
  

Seamless Integration & Continuity

• Zero downtime throughout migration.
• 48 ADF pipelines transitioned with no disruption to existing workflows.
• Unity Catalog’s SYNC Utility enabled near-instant external table migration.
  
  

Operational Excellence & Automation

• Terraform-based automation reduced manual effort and ensured repeatability.
• Workspace-catalog binding streamlined access and governance processes.
• Databricks usage has increased due to improved reliability and data accessibility.

Accelerated Analytics & Adoption

• Increased usage of Databricks platform post-migration due to improved performance and structure.
• Enabled testing of advanced features like Delta Live Tables.
• Streamlined access management empowered data teams to work more efficiently.

Future-Ready, Scalable Architecture

• Foundation laid for expanding analytics and AI use cases.
• Architecture now supports evolving business and compliance needs
• Positioned for continued automation, growth, and innovation.

Looking Forward
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This successful migration has laid the groundwork for a future-ready, scalable, and secure data platform. With Unity Catalog as the foundation, the organization is well-positioned to:

1. Accelerate analytics adoption across teams.
2. Scale advanced use cases, including Delta Live Tables and real-time data sharing.
3. Adapt to evolving business and compliance requirements with confidence.

Testimonial
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“Partnering with Koantek has been a game-changer. As our data infrastructure rapidly expanded, we faced growing challenges in governance, security, and scalability. Koantek stepped in with the expertise and precision we needed to modernize our platform and migrate to Unity Catalog on Databricks. They not only helped us centralize metadata and tighten access controls, but also automated and optimized our entire data landscape using Terraform—without any disruption to our operations.

The results speak for themselves: enhanced performance, improved compliance, and a robust foundation for data-driven decision-making. Thanks to Koantek’s deep technical knowledge and collaborative approach, we’re now better equipped to scale our analytics and meet evolving business demands with confidence.”

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