Consult Our ExpertsOverview
A leading sports analytics company needed to enhance its data processing and real-time analytics capabilities as its operations scaled. The existing Azure PaaS-based infrastructure faced limitations in processing speed, scalability, and real-time data handling. To address these challenges, the company transitioned to a High-Performance Compute (HPC) system leveraging Apache Software Foundation (ASF) technologies, enabling real-time insights and optimized performance.
Challenges
- Azure Data Factory (ADF) Limitations: Lacked key features, making complex workflows difficult.
- High ADF Costs: The cost of operations using ADF became unsustainable.
- Slow Processing Speed: Large data volumes resulted in slow query execution and data stitching delays.
- Scalability Issues: The existing system couldn’t handle increasing transactional and analytical workloads.
- Real-Time Data Processing : The previous infrastructure could not support real-time queries and analytics.
- Need for a High-Performance Infrastructure: Required a Hybrid Transactional/Analytical Processing (HTAP) system.
Solutions
- Apache Airflow: Replaced ADF, providing Python-based automation for seamless data workflows.
- Apache Kafka: Enabled real-time event streaming and seamless data integration.
- Apache Ignite: Used as an HTAP database, significantly speeding up queries by 100x.
- Apache Spark (Databricks) : Continued to process large-scale aggregates (e.g., player positioning analysis).
- Azure API Gateway & Kubernetes API Endpoints: Enhanced scalability and serverless infrastructure management.
Benefits
- 100x Faster Query Execution (via Apache Ignite’s in-memory capabilities).
- Real-Time Data Processing (with Apache Kafka & Ignite integration).
- Reduced Infrastructure Costs (by replacing Azure ADF with Apache Airflow).
- Scalable & Flexible Architecture (ASF projects enabled horizontal scalability).
- Improved Workflow Efficiency (Python-based automation simplified orchestration).
Conclusion
By leveraging Azure Data Engineering services, the shipping company transformed its data management and analytics, empowering informed decisions, operational efficiency, and business growth.