Introduction
Aptus Health connects life sciences brands with healthcare professionals and consumers via data-driven, multichannel campaigns. With usage spanning a network of over one million physicians and a mobile reach exceeding 100 million users, Aptus moved from an on-premises SQL Server warehouse to a Snowflake-based, automated data vault using WhereScape to centralize data and accelerate delivery.
Pre-WhereScape Challenges
- Legacy limitations: The on-premises data warehouse was built for a single legacy organization and was poorly documented.
- Data silos multiplying: Acquisitions created new, isolated data sets, each with its own reporting system.
- Slow analytics: Manual ETL processes were too time-consuming, complex, and prone to human error.
- Limited visibility: The team lacked historical data for trend analysis and had no centralized master data management.
- Scalability concerns: Integrating new data sources into a 12-year-old architecture made it difficult to meet business demands.
Why WhereScape?
Aptus adopted Data Vault 2.0 for resilience and chose WhereScape Data Vault Express for Snowflake to speed design, development, deployment, and operations. Template-driven automation, metadata-first patterns, and automatic documentation enabled rapid progress without enlarging the team—shifting effort from hand coding to delivering business value.
The Solution
Cloud-Native Foundation on Snowflake
Aptus migrated its warehouse to Snowflake for elastic scale and pay-as-you-go efficiency, separating compute from storage to fit a storage-heavy, CPU-light profile.
Automated Data Vault Lifecycle
Using WhereScape Data Vault Express, the team generated hubs, links, satellites, and ELT jobs from metadata—standardizing patterns and enforcing repeatability across environments.
Business Vault and Marts
WhereScape pipelines feed a business vault with governed business rules, then publish subject-area marts for analysts, BI tools, and transactional consumers.
Built-In Documentation and Lineage
Automation auto-documents structures, transformations, and data lineage, simplifying audits, onboarding, and impact analysis.
Global Extensibility
Models and pipelines were designed to integrate U.S. and international data logically while keeping sensitive data physically separated as required.
“Getting the opportunity to abandon an existing data warehouse and start over meant that we needed to show very rapid progress. Automation was the only way to accelerate the delivery of business value with the same size team.”
– Alethea Granberg, Senior Director of Product Development, Aptus Health
Results
🚀 Faster Time to Value
- First DV 2.0 model created in 3 days.
- First production cloud vault live in 3 months.
- First data mart operational shortly thereafter.
🚀 Centralized, Consistent Data
- Provider data available centrally across applications.
- Discrepancies reduced via shared models and rules.
- Historical depth supports trend and cohort analysis.
🚀 Operational Efficiency
- Data moved in minutes, not days for key loads.
- Near-instant mart refreshes for downstream consumers.
- Fewer manual steps; less firefighting and rework.
🚀 Transparency and Trust
- Full documentation of schemas and transformations.
- End-to-end lineage accelerates impact analysis.
- Easier audits and better stakeholder confidence.
“As software developers, we are often so busy delivering value for the business that we overlook ways to deliver value to ourselves. Through automation, we’ve increased our productivity tremendously, and WhereScape has been a great partner for us.”
– Steve Gordon, Director of Data Warehousing, Aptus Health
From ETL To Automated ELT
Traditional ETL couldn’t keep pace with new sources and changing campaign logic. With WhereScape, Aptus shifted to metadata-driven ELT on Snowflake, generating target-optimized SQL and Python and orchestrating dependencies automatically.
Snowflake Economics
Snowflake’s separation of storage and compute aligned with Aptus’s profile. The platform provided self-optimizing services and elasticity, while cost control improved by scaling compute only when needed.
“In addition to the self-optimization, innovative platform, and AWS infrastructure that Snowflake offers, it was the only solution that separates the cost of storage from the computing costs.”
– Steve Gordon, Director of Data Warehousing, Aptus Health
Data Vault 2.0 Resilience
Data Vault 2.0’s hubs, links, and satellites provided a stable backbone through changing sources and rules. New attributes and entities are added without refactoring large star schemas—keeping delivery predictable even as data grows.
Developer Experience
By leaning on patterns rather than bespoke code, engineers spend more time with stakeholders refining business rules and models. WhereScape’s auto-documentation and lineage simplify handovers and speed reviews.
Personalization at Scale
Centralized provider and consumer data enables deeper segmentation and more relevant outreach across channels. As new sources come online, they are onboarded through repeatable pipelines that preserve governance.
“Through automation we’ve increased our productivity tremendously, and WhereScape has been a great partner for us.”
– Steve Gordon, Director of Data Warehousing, Aptus Health
