Cost-Effective Data Lakehouse for a $78M Nonprofit — $12K/Year

The Problem

The organization needed to become data-driven but had no data infrastructure in place and a tight budget. They needed something that could scale with the organization without becoming a cost center or a maintenance burden.

What We Built

We designed and implemented a Data Lakehouse architecture using a combination of AWS-native and open-source tools — keeping costs minimal while delivering enterprise-grade reliability. The solution included DataOps practices with code versioning and CI/CD so the team could manage changes safely over time.

Results

• Fully operational data infrastructure running at just $12,000/year
• Easily maintainable pipelines the internal team can own post-handoff
• DataOps practices in place: code versioning, automated deployments, reproducible pipelines
• Organization positioned to be data-driven without a large ongoing cost