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Pipl, a globally recognized leader in digital identity verification and investigation data services, stands at the forefront of ensuring secure and reliable solutions for enterprises and individuals worldwide. Their commitment to delivering top-notch services led them to a pivotal moment where they needed to address challenges associated with legacy cloud services and the optimization of their Elasticsearch clusters.
Pipl’s existing cloud services provider (CSP) left much to be desired. It did not support Pipl’s pipeline of ambitious engineering projects. Last year, Pipl strategically decided to move to a leading CSP. As part of that process, they selected Google Cloud Platform (GCP) as their new provider.
“We had a very big and poorly managed Elasticsearch cluster,” stated Uri Harel, Pipl’s Head of Infrastructure. This was unwieldy and difficult to update, but it was hampering the development team’s ambitions to use Elasticsearch for more advanced and intelligent projects.
These issues with Elasticsearch configuration and architecture led Pipl to search for outside help from a consultancy with profound expertise in the field.
Pipl places the utmost importance on customer experience while using its unique identity verification platform. Hence, any migration of internal and production applications to Google Cloud Platform had to be carried out without any disruption or downtime. This was a challenging request, as there were unruly Elasticsearch clusters and vast amounts of improperly indexed data to consider.
Recommended by Google Cloud, BigData Boutique assumed responsibility for Pipl's intricate project. BigData Boutique’s reputation and track record for success in Elasticsearch, Google Cloud Platform, and zero-downtime cloud migrations made them an easy choice for Pipl. With a comprehensive bespoke plan, BigData Boutique facilitated a seamless migration to GCP, synchronized old and new clusters, and ensured uninterrupted business operations throughout the discovery, migration and implementation phases.
"BigData Boutique took overall responsibility and ownership for the whole project, from start to finish." - Uri Harel, Head of Infrastructure, Pipl
BigData Boutique orchestrated the setup of new Elasticsearch clusters on GCP, ensuring synchronization with the old production clusters. This meticulous and complex migration, spanning three months, maintained a logical separation between old and new instances, achieving Pipl's critical goal of zero downtime.
"That was a big goal for our migration - to have zero downtime for the move - which BigData Boutique [successfully achieved]." - Uri Harel, Head of Infrastructure, Pipl
Beyond project scope, BigData Boutique passionately shared expertise with Pipl's engineers, addressing knowledge gaps in Elasticsearch. This collaboration empowered Pipl's team to undertake more challenging projects and leverage newfound expertise for future endeavors.
Pipl’s platform relies on being able to query vast amounts of structured and unstructured data at high speeds, so the new Elasticsearch cluster had to be optimized in a way that would require minimal tuning moving forward. BigData Boutique worked closely with Pipl’s engineers to make sure the right planning had gone into setting up the new Elasticsearch cluster on Google Cloud Platform, including significant work on the structure of the cluster, with efficient coding to optimize the performance.
“The migration was effectively managed into two waves: the offline and internal systems, and the customer-facing systems,” which was critical in guaranteeing no disruption to Pipl’s customers, says Uri. Towards the end of the migration project, Pipl had two identical clusters running, one on the old infrastructure and one on Google Cloud Platform.
Eventually, all the data sources were managed from GCP. This exclusive access to GCP has enabled Pipl to take advantage of a vast array of tooling. This greater functionality, flexibility, and resilience propels Pipl forward to exciting new challenges.
Previously, Pipl lacked expertise in Elasticsearch. That’s now a thing of the past, as the Pipl team has been empowered to architect their data so they don’t have to add another node every few weeks. This capability has enabled Pipl to take control of its Elasticsearch cluster and use its new expertise when implementing its strategic goals.
Impressed by BigData Boutique's professionalism and expertise, Pipl extended the partnership beyond the initial project. BigData Boutique remains integral to Pipl's day-to-day maintenance on Google Cloud clusters and is actively engaged in various projects, providing valuable knowledge and support.
BigData Boutique not only delivered a cutting-edge tech stack to Pipl but also fostered an ongoing partnership, positioning Pipl as a frontrunner in the challenging field of big data search technology. With a reliable partner in BigData Boutique, Pipl continues to explore Elasticsearch's potential, confident in its ability to excel in the evolving landscape.
