How Kythera Labs, a Databricks Constructed-On Companion, saves $2M+/yr utilizing Delta Sharing

Healthcare programs generate monumental quantities of delicate information, however transferring, sharing, and analyzing that information securely throughout organizations remains to be a serious problem. On this publish, we’ll have a look at how we at Kythera Labs use Databricks and Delta Sharing to handle greater than 300 million affected person data and assist collaborations throughout healthcare and life sciences. The weblog will cowl the sensible points with older information‑sharing strategies, why we adopted Delta Sharing, and the impression it’s had on our storage prices, effectivity, and actual‑time collaboration.

Making Knowledge Work in Healthcare: Kythera’s Strategy

Kythera Labs is a knowledge know-how firm that empowers healthcare and life sciences organizations with a unified, high-fidelity healthcare information platform for evaluation. As a built-on Databricks Companion, we selected Databricks and Delta Sharing not only for inside information sharing but in addition to assist seamless information trade with exterior companions. In the present day, greater than 80% of our clients use merchandise constructed on the platform. We additionally assist exterior collaborations, together with organizations like Precise Sciences, utilizing Delta Sharing throughout 50 energetic buyer workspaces.

Why Delta Sharing?

Kythera Labs selected Delta Sharing to beat vital challenges in securely sharing healthcare information. With over 300 million affected person data spanning a decade of medical historical past, conventional strategies required creating and transferring a number of full copies of datasets, driving storage prices into the lots of of hundreds of {dollars} and slowing supply.

Delta Sharing adjustments that by enabling safe, actual‑time entry to stay information with out creating duplicate copies. As an alternative of storing and sustaining separate datasets for every associate or surroundings, we are able to share a single, ruled supply of reality instantly. This method has allowed us to energy inside groups and exterior collaborations with simply 3.5 PB of storage, moderately than the 20‑plus PB in any other case required.

One other complexity is assembly our clients the place they’re on the cloud. Healthcare suppliers usually function in Azure, whereas many pharmaceutical firms run on AWS or GCP. With out a know-how like Delta Sharing, delivering giant datasets throughout clouds would imply expensive transfers, advanced ETL work, and a number of stale copies scattered throughout clouds. With Delta Sharing, we are able to immediately present safe entry to the identical stay dataset — regardless of the cloud — whereas sustaining compliance and eliminating pointless copies.

This not solely streamlines our inside workflows (transferring from growth to testing to manufacturing with out re‑copying information) but in addition makes it straightforward for patrons to behave quicker, like immediately updating a most cancers remedy mannequin with the most recent information.

Changing Legacy Approaches

Given the exponential progress in information quantity and complexity, conventional information sharing strategies like SFTP servers are not viable for contemporary wants. Shifting giant information backwards and forwards introduces delays, provides safety dangers, and requires storage of a number of redundant datasets.

Whereas APIs could possibly be a useful resource, they’re inadequate for sharing the huge oceans of information that organizations like Kythera handle. Counting on APIs to share the immense volumes of information we handle can be like making an attempt to fill a swimming pool with a backyard hose—it’s technically doable, however too gradual and inefficient for our wants.

Operationally, we deal with 7–10 million transactions each day whereas making certain compliance by way of our customized “Vault Structure” constructed on Delta Sharing. Prospects profit from real-time updates by way of view sharing with out guide intervention.

By adopting Delta Sharing, we’ve fully moved away from these legacy strategies and gained operational effectivity whereas enabling seamless collaboration throughout clouds and organizations.

Delta Sharing ROI

Delta Sharing has allowed us to eradicate legacy data-sharing strategies, reduce storage wants by over 80%, and save greater than $2 million within the final 2 years. — Jeff McDonald, CEO, Kythera Labs

Delta Sharing helped Kythera reduce storage wants from a projected 24 PB to only 3.5 PB. Over three years, storage demand dropped from 17 PB/month in 2024 to 12 PB/month in 2023 and 6 PB/month in 2022. These reductions add as much as thousands and thousands in financial savings. For context, giant pharmaceutical firms can spend as a lot as $14 million every month simply on storage.

Storage is simply a part of the story. The compute prices for performing the ETL copies could possibly be much more vital, starting from equal to the storage financial savings to probably many occasions higher, relying on the use circumstances.

Key Takeaways

Delta Sharing has remodeled our data-sharing capabilities by lowering prices, enhancing effectivity, and enabling real-time collaboration throughout clouds and organizations. The mixture of Delta Sharing, Unity Catalog, and liquid clustering ensures scalability whereas sustaining compliance with healthcare information requirements, exemplifying how open, trendy information platforms can revolutionize healthcare analytics.