Advantage
Creating the optimal framework for data science through a high-performance, scalable and at the same time secure IT infrastructure.
Challenge
Development of a central infrastructure that equally meets the heterogeneous requirements of different user types.
Toolset
Development of a hybrid stack of open source and enterprise solutions around existing components such as SAP HANA DB, R and Tableau.
Challenge
ITSCare, an AOK subsidiary and specialist in IT services for the healthcare market, commissioned the data science experts at eoda to design a professional IT infrastructure for AOK Baden-Württemberg.
To develop an optimally suited infrastructure and implementation concept, eoda brought together the client's data science and IT managers as part of an assessment tailored to AOK Baden-Württemberg. The goal of the assessment was to determine the maturity of the existing IT infrastructure and the key data and user stories. The data stories illustrate the path from the data source to the data output to the relevant stakeholder and the associated infrastructure requirements.
Due to the multitude of different data stories and user types, AOK Baden-Württemberg's key challenge was to create a central infrastructure solution that optimally accommodates the highly heterogeneous requirements.
The assessment identified the following potential factors for the existing IT infrastructure in relation to data science requirements:
- Increasing the level of professionalism
- Improving collaborative work and reproducibility
- Increasing scalability
- Modular structure with various expansion levels for future challenges (cloud readiness, etc.)
- Integration of core components from the existing data science landscape
Goal
AOK Baden-Württemberg aims to actively advance data science within the company. The central component of this initiative is the creation of an IT infrastructure that is geared toward the high development speed and agile approach in data science while simultaneously meeting the demanding requirements of a productive IT system.
Solution
The existing IT infrastructure, including SAP HANA DB, R/Posit (formerly RStudio), and Tableau, already provides data scientists with numerous tools for implementing even sophisticated models. With a centrally anchored concept and the associated professionalization of the IT infrastructure, a technical environment can be created for data scientists that provides crucial support in their work.
Based on these findings, the experts at eoda have developed an implementation concept for AOK Baden-Württemberg, which encompasses the following areas of action:
Integration & Tools
IDEs for R & Python, use of Docker, etc.
Datenanbindung
Performanter Datenzugriff etc.
Rights & Installations
Access rights, package installations, etc.
Reporting & Deployment
Reports, dashboards, apps, REST APIs etc.
CI / CD DevOps/MLOps
Version management of code and data, etc.
Hardware & Resources
Scalability, GPU support, performance, etc.
Security & IT
On-premise, AD connection, cloud readiness etc.
The recommended implementation concept is characterized by a hybrid stack of open source and enterprise solutions. This combines the required flexibility with good maintainability. Of particular note is the inclusion of a research environment for data scientists to easily and risk-free test new packages and features.
The implementation concept of eoda | analytic infrastructure consulting also includes a detailed plan for implementing the designed infrastructure and its components.
Result
By professionalizing its IT infrastructure, AOK Baden-Württemberg is raising the framework for data science to a new level. The eoda implementation concept lays the foundation for a high-performance, scalable, and secure IT infrastructure that is perfectly designed for the productive use of data science within the company.
Learn more about the implementation of the data science infrastructure in the second part of the case study.
Get started now:
We look forward to exchanging ideas with you.
Your expert on Data-Science-Projects:
Lutz Mastmayer
projects@eoda.de
Tel. +49 561 87948-370
