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Save 100K Per Year with our Mark Your Data Platform

By Mark Your Data | January 2025

The data engineer dilemma

Your organization is growing. You've accumulated data across different systems and you want to become more data-driven. The natural instinct? Hire a data engineer.

But at 100K per year, is that really the best investment?

We don't think so. Here's why.

Data engineers don't add business value

That sounds provocative, but hear us out. Data engineers are essential for building and maintaining data infrastructure. They set up pipelines, manage data quality, and ensure data flows from A to B.

But here's the thing: moving data doesn't create insights. Data engineers lay the foundation, but they don't directly answer business questions or drive decisions.

It's your data analysts who turn data into insights. They analyze trends, build dashboards, identify opportunities, and help you make better decisions. That's where the real value is.

The true cost of a traditional data setup

Let's break down what a minimal data team typically costs:

Personnel

100,000/year - Senior Data Engineer

80,000/year - Data Analyst

180,000/year in salaries

Platform costs

18,000/year - Fivetran (data pipelines)

4,200/year - Cloud Composer (orchestration)

12,000/year - Data warehouse (Bigquery/Redshift)

~35,000/year in tools

Total: ~215,000 per year

A better approach: invest in analysts, not infrastructure

What if you could skip the data engineer hire entirely? What if your analysts could start adding value from day one, without waiting for someone to build the foundation first?

That's exactly what Mark Your Data Platform offers.

What you get

  • Complete data infrastructure - Cloud-native, scalable, and maintained by us
  • Data pipelines - We ingest data from your sources using DLT, an open-source alternative to Fivetran
  • Data models - We structure your data using DBT so analysts can query it easily
  • Cost-efficient storage - We use MotherDuck instead of expensive data warehouses
  • Onboarding support - We help your analysts get started quickly

The math: save up to 100K per year

Traditional approach

100,000 - Data Engineer

35,000 - Platform tools

80,000 - Data Analyst

~215,000/year

Mark Your Data Platform

0 - No data engineer needed

~15,000 - Platform subscription

80,000 - Data Analyst

~95,000/year

Save ~120,000/year!

But what about customization?

A common concern: "Won't I lose flexibility without an in-house data engineer?"

Actually, no. Our platform is built on open-source tools (DLT, DBT, MotherDuck) that are fully customizable. Everything is code, stored in Git, and can be modified as your needs evolve.

And because it's all code, modern AI tools like Claude can help maintain and extend your platform. That's something you can't do with SaaS configuration UIs.

Already have a data engineer?

If you've already hired a data engineer, you can still save significantly by switching from expensive enterprise tools to our lightweight stack.

Learn how to save 30K+ per year on platform costs

The bottom line

Data infrastructure is a commodity. Don't overpay for it.

With our Mark Your Data Platform, you get a complete, production-ready data foundation at a fraction of the cost. Your analysts can start adding value immediately, without waiting months for infrastructure to be built.

Invest your budget where it creates real impact: in the people who turn data into insights.

Ready to Save 100K Per Year?

Let's discuss how our Mark Your Data Platform can help your organization become data-driven without the overhead of building infrastructure from scratch.


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