The Challenge
Outbrain needed to upgrade its obsolete research cluster technology while maintaining seamless integration with on-premises infrastructure. The company faced tight timelines with only four months to choose, trial, and migrate before their hosting agreement renewal. Research cluster usage was elastic, leading to idle servers and wasted costs during smaller projects.
The Solution
Outbrain partnered with DoiT International to migrate to Google Cloud using Cloud Dataproc as the backbone. The solution implemented autoscaling to adjust cluster size based on project requirements and used preemptible nodes for cost efficiency. BigQuery enabled granular traffic analytics, while Cloud Storage handled the 6 petabytes of research data.
Results
- Achieved 40% reduction in infrastructure costs compared to previous research cluster
- Completed full migration in just 4 months with minimal operational disruption
- Eliminated long lead times for new projects through serverless research cluster capabilities
- Improved talent acquisition by moving from obsolete to cutting-edge technology stack
In DoIT International, we found a partner we can really consult with and come up with radical new ways of how to do things. They have a deep understanding of the technologies involved. They're not just a contractor that executes our plan.
Orit Yaron, VP of Cloud Platform
Migration Strategy
Outbrain partnered with DoiT International to plan and execute the migration to Google Cloud. The project began with a Proof of Concept in late 2017 to test technology viability and train researchers. By January 2018, full migration commenced. The team transferred 6 petabytes of data to Cloud Storage using physical network backup lines to avoid disrupting normal operations. Cloud Dataproc formed the backbone of the new research cluster, providing integrated Hadoop features and seamless linking with Cloud Storage data.
Technology Implementation
The new architecture leveraged Cloud Dataproc with autoscaling capabilities to dynamically adjust cluster size based on project requirements. Preemptible nodes were implemented for cost efficiency during appropriate workloads. BigQuery enabled granular analytics on data center performance, allowing traffic optimization across regions. The Cloud Vision API provided image tagging capabilities at scale. This hybrid approach maintained integration with on-premises infrastructure while maximizing cloud benefits.
Results and Impact
The migration delivered immediate cost benefits with 40% infrastructure cost savings compared to the previous research cluster. Project initiation became seamless, eliminating long hardware provisioning lead times. The company gained better cost predictability through autoscaling and on-demand cluster management. The modern technology stack improved talent acquisition by positioning Outbrain as a cutting-edge employer. Operational efficiency increased through serverless research capabilities and improved resource utilization.
Future Innovations
Outbrain continues optimizing their service with Google Cloud technologies. The company is experimenting with Kubernetes clusters to handle traffic spikes more efficiently, enabling rapid compute scaling during news events and automatic shutdown when demand decreases. This approach addresses the challenge of over-provisioning servers for peak loads while maintaining service availability. The ongoing collaboration with Google focuses on long-term optimization and access to emerging tools and technologies.
See how DoiT helps cloud teams control spend
Explore how DoiT Cloud Intelligence helps teams improve visibility, governance, and unit economics across cloud environments.
More customer stories
Promptly saves $600K and ships AI in weeks
- $600K
- Annual cloud cost savings
- 3 months
- of engineering time saved
Extenda Retail Cuts SSD Waste, Speeds AI
Wicked Reports Ships GenAI 3 Months Faster
- 3 months saved
- of development time saved using DoiT's Cloud Accelerator
- 25% faster
- prototype-to-production timeline compared to internal estimates
- $0 additional spend
- zero additional infrastructure spend during prototype build thanks to AWS credits and DoiT's optimization
DaySmart
DaySmart Ships AI Capability in 90 Days
- 90 days
- From POC to deployment
- 90 days
- From POC to deployment with zero internal engineering time required
- 6x
- Engineers worth of resource saved
Vivaticket cuts AWS environment setup from 3 days to 15 minutes
- 15min
- Environment creation time
- 15min
- Environment creation time (vs 3 days before)
- 20min
- Application deployment in immutable mode
Blumira scales SOC Auto-Focus with cost control
Luxury Escapes Saves $10K+ on AWS
Promptly saves $600K and ships AI in weeks
- $600K
- Annual cloud cost savings
- 3 months
- of engineering time saved
Extenda Retail Cuts SSD Waste, Speeds AI
Wicked Reports Ships GenAI 3 Months Faster
- 3 months saved
- of development time saved using DoiT's Cloud Accelerator
- 25% faster
- prototype-to-production timeline compared to internal estimates
- $0 additional spend
- zero additional infrastructure spend during prototype build thanks to AWS credits and DoiT's optimization
DaySmart
DaySmart Ships AI Capability in 90 Days
- 90 days
- From POC to deployment
- 90 days
- From POC to deployment with zero internal engineering time required
- 6x
- Engineers worth of resource saved
Vivaticket cuts AWS environment setup from 3 days to 15 minutes
- 15min
- Environment creation time
- 15min
- Environment creation time (vs 3 days before)
- 20min
- Application deployment in immutable mode
Blumira scales SOC Auto-Focus with cost control
What they say
What I really like about DoiT's approach is that you're very hands-on and proactive. Satyam would ping me a few times a sprint, letting me know about the most current features, checking in on how things are going. When we are going through a peak time, that proactiveness makes a real difference. Satyam always comes through whenever we need support and helps us leverage the right experts to get us where we need to be.
Chiamaka Ibeme, Engineering Manager, Platform
SELECT has made important cost data readily accessible. I will often pull it up during engineering design reviews so we can quickly evaluate cost impact and projections and factor that into our design decisions.
Douglas Zickuhr, Senior Data Platform Engineer at Personio
I love clicking through SELECT to understand how our environment and workloads are evolving. I probably check it every day. It's coffee and SELECT for me every morning.
Ian Fahey, Senior Analytics Engineer at Loop
You guys have the best UI experience that I've had of any software. It's like you just read my mind where, like, oh, I wish I could click there. Oh, I can
Diana Koshy, Sr. Director of Data Engineering at Kargo
SELECT feels like exactly what Paul and I would have built if we had locked ourselves in a room for 18 months to create our ideal monitoring solution.
Devin McGee, Data Engineering Lead at Home Chef
SELECT dramatically lowers the cognitive load to understanding Snowflake costs. I'm able to sit there and easily understand what's driving the cost. Not to blow smoke up your ass, but it's just so easy to do in your platform
Blake Baggett, Head of Data Operations at Entain
One of the most helpful cost rituals we've setup from SELECT is the weekly spend digest sent to Slack. I can start high level and ensure things are in check. If not, I can very quickly drill down into specific workloads which may have driven the cost spike and remediate them before they become a bigger issue.
Michael Revelo, Manager of data and analytics engineering at ClickUp
Through SELECT's automated savings feature and deep cost visibility, we were able to instantly lower our Snowflake spend by over 40% and achieve a 20X ROI on our SELECT investment.
Skyler Chi, SVP, GTM Productivity & Excellence at Exiger
Our costs had jumped up 3X as we scaled, so we're talking about 60% savings in Snowflake spend after adopting SELECT.
Edward Mancey, GTM Lead at Synthesia
DoiT was a true partner, not a vendor. They helped us understand the problem, refine the vision, and build something production-ready far faster than we could have on our own. Their expertise, responsiveness, and commitment made all the difference.
Dr. Anish Kapur, Founder & CEO, Promptly
DoiT's Customer Success and Forward Deployed Engineering teams work very closely with us. The regular sessions with our CSM keep us focused on the right priorities, and the FDEs provide the deep technical guidance we need to validate decisions and optimize our environment. That combination has been genuinely valuable for us.
Alexander Lundberg Santos, Platform Engineer at Extenda Retail
When we started working with DoiT, we deployed Flexsave to save time and reduce complexity. We still use it today. But what really stands out is the expert support. Having someone to collaborate with on deep cloud cost topics, someone who really understands the nuances, is incredibly valuable.
Jesper Terkelsen, CTO at Monta
DoiT's Cloud Accelerator turned our AI idea into a shipped product, saving at least three months of development and delivering reliable, explainable insights our customers trust.
Scott Desgrosseilliers, CEO and co-founder, Wicked Reports
Your cloud bill shouldn't be a mystery
Let us show you what ships this week.