Customer
Catalina Modernizes Their Hadoop Big Data Infrastructure With Help From OpenLogic
" A great partner. We saw fast results. Working with OpenLogic went very smoothly — they proved to be a great partner. Everyone on our team was impressed with the fast results we saw after implementing their recommendations."
Catalina, a provider of personalized Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG) marketing solutions for large retailers, wanted to modernize their Hadoop-based Big Data stack. OpenLogic optimized their existing data infrastructure and then developed a strategic roadmap to help them replace legacy software with newer technologies.
How OpenLogic Helped Catalina
Configuration and Tuning
- OpenLogic made adjustments to Catalina's Hadoop-based data layer to improve performance and stability.
Custom Demos
- Catalina was able to see open source technologies recommended by OpenLogic deployed in an environment identical to theirs.
Modernization Roadmap
- OpenLogic provided detailed documentation to enable Catalina to implement the new tools when they are ready.
Catalina Needed to Update Their Hadoop-Based Big Data Stack
Catalina is a global leader in CPG marketing whose data-driven approach has revolutionized the shopping experience for millions of consumers. Catalina’s AI-enabled data science and measurement solutions are designed to predict and influence shopper behavior. CPG brands and retailers around the world count on Catalina to deliver insights that help build customer loyalty and increase revenue, both online and in stores.
Catalina’s data layer is a critical part of their business model, playing an essential role in the advanced personalization that is the hallmark of their marketing solutions. Their Hadoop-based data infrastructure is equipped to handle terabytes of data — think millions of transactions processed in a matter of seconds — to generate real-time ads and offers based on what is in a shopper’s cart.
To ensure they could continue to scale and support the needs of their growing customer base, Catalina determined that it was time to modernize their Big Data stack and turned to OpenLogic for guidance.
"We were looking for a partner with years of Big Data enterprise experience and we found that in OpenLogic. Their Professional Services team was able to quickly identify opportunities for optimization and recommend a path forward.”
– Julie Valdez, Senior Vice President at Catalina
Catalina Implements OpenLogic’s Initial Recommendations and Sees Immediate Improvement
To lay the groundwork for modernization, Catalina engaged OpenLogic to assess the existing infrastructure and identify short-term ways to improve performance and stability. After a comprehensive evaluation, OpenLogic shared best practices for configuration tuning and suggested some straightforward upgrade paths involving minimal version migrations — a strategy that saved time and resources.
This exercise proved to be a key first step: Catalina saw immediate results, such as improved CPU usage and fewer outages, and trusted OpenLogic to start developing their future state roadmap.
“The tuning work OpenLogic performed helped solidify the partnership and made us feel like we could trust the strategy that was being developed for us.”
– Ray Salimbangon, Software Manager at Catalina
OpenLogic Proposes New Technologies to Meet Catalina’s Needs
Any software modernization project involves replacing older tools in the stack with the latest and greatest technologies available. In this phase of the professional services engagement, OpenLogic delivered a series of highly customized demos to show the Catalina team the proposed tools in action.
The OpenLogic Professional Services team showcased a number of open source technologies including AirFlow for automation, Ganglia for centralized monitoring, Spark for data processing, and Ambari for holistic cluster management. They modeled how the software would function in Catalina’s environment by replicating exact components of their system.
"We appreciated OpenLogic’s flexibility and promptness with getting back to us when we had questions. This gave us confidence that the solutions they were proposing would in fact work in our environment."
– Ray Salimbangon, Software Manager at Catalina
Thanks to OpenLogic, Catalina Can Turn Their Roadmap Into Reality
As a final deliverable, OpenLogic provided Catalina with detailed technical documentation to guide their modernization efforts. Catalina’s IT team is now armed with everything they need to move forward on their own or with continued support from OpenLogic or another vendor.
"OpenLogic Professional Services worked with us to develop a strategic roadmap to guide our modernization efforts. We feel confident about the upcoming implementation phase.”
– Julie Valdez, Senior Vice President at Catalina
Open Source Your Big Data Management and Save Up to 60% With the Hadoop Service Bundle
The Hadoop Service Bundle is an affordable, open source alternative to Cloudera that gives companies more data sovereignty, flexibility, and control over where they host their Big Data. Click the button below to find out more.