Cardlytics

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Case study
Cardlytics
Industry
Advertising &
marketing services
“Our advertising clients are looking for innovative ways to attract new
customers and better engage existing ones. Our HPE Vertica Analytics
Platform enables us to fine-tune and personalize oers, and we are providing
this service at hyper-speed.”
– Scott Grimes, CEO, Cardlytics
Cardlytics has a proven track record of delivering
eective rewards programs, working with some
of the largest financial institutions in the world.
With an estimated 61% of Internet users banking
online, there is a tremendous opportunity for
advertisers to reach potential customers through
banking channels.
According to Cardlytics CEO Scott Grimes,
“Our advertising clients are looking for
innovative ways to attract new customers and
better engage existing ones. Our HPE Vertica
Analytics Platform enables us to fine-tune
and personalize oers, and we are providing
this service at hyper-speed.”
While Cardlytics is pleased with its success,
the company’s growth also presents it
with business and technology challenges.
For several years, the company relied on a
traditional RDBMS (SQL row store database)
platform. However, each time the company
added a new partner, Cardlytics’ volume
of data mushroomed. Faced with rapid
expansion and the addition of larger banking
partners, Cardlytics knew that it needed
a scalable architecture. The company also
aimed to improve processing speed.
Proof of concept
leads to selection
After Cardlytics determined that it required
a new analytics platform, Craig Snodgrass,
Cardlytics’ Chief Data Oicer, began
researching potential options. Cardlytics
looked into several vendors, including HPE
Vertica. Snodgrass found that some of the
vendors did not allow him to do a proof
of concept. “The standard way you sell
databases is to give the customers the keys
and let them go play. Vertica gave us a box
to do a proof of concept, and we took it and
ran,” Snodgrass says. Cardlytics also ruled out
several vendors since the solutions did not
provide what he saw as a need for commodity
hardware—an essential requirement. “There
are certain products that have distributed
data, but we didn’t want to get locked into
buying proprietary hardware. We wanted
more flexibility over the infrastructure,”
Snodgrass says.
After considering all options, Cardlytics
selected the HPE Vertica Analytics Platform.
“There is a predictable cost to scale out. That
was one of our key criteria in selecting Vertica.
That and flat-out speed,” Snodgrass says.
“I like that there is a
predictable cost to scale out.
That was one of our key
criteria in selecting Vertica.
That and flat-out speed.”
– Craig Snodgrass, Chief Data Oicer,
Cardlytics