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AbeBooks Case Study: Migrating to Amazon Redshift

AbeBooks seamlessly migrated to Amazon Redshift, using Matillion ETL, and gave more developers the ability to use ETL with an intuitive interface.

Their success

Increased ETL literacy within the company by 150%

Quick and easy PoC process

Enabled a seamless migration to Amazon Redshift

About

AbeBooks, a subsidiary of Amazon.com, is an online marketplace for new, used, rare, and out-of-print books offered by trusted independent sellers. Headquartered in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, AbeBooks also has a European office in Munich, Germany.

Company: AbeBooks Inc

Location: Victoria, Canada

Industry: Internet Retail

Employees: 135

Product: Matillion ETL for Amazon Redshift

Use Case: Data Warehouse Modernization

Reporting & Analytics Tech: Tableau

Website:

The challenge

Outgrowing an existing database

AbeBooks needed a new database solution. The business’s existing database had performance issues and the cost of ownership was too high. After choosing Amazon Redshift as its cloud data warehouse, AbeBooks needed a new ETL solution to migrate its data to the new data warehouse, connect with third-party data sources and transform its data. Its existing ETL solution was linked to its old, on-premises database, which complicated maintenance, and was essentially a black box to everyone but a few database administrators (DBAs).

The solution

A new ETL solution, downloaded in minutes

AbeBooks tested several ETL options against its various use cases and found Matillion to be fast and easy to use. To test Matillion, AbeBooks simply downloaded Matillion ETL for Amazon Redshift from the AWS Marketplace and began using it within minutes. The company then used Matillion ETL for Amazon Redshift to migrate its existing database to Amazon Redshift—completing the migration ahead of schedule. Finally, AbeBooks used Matillion to build orchestration and transformation jobs, leveraging the power of Amazon Redshift to transform data quickly and at scale.

If you are doing ETL to Redshift, I think you absolutely have to look at Matillion because it really is that best of breed tool on the marketplace right now.

Dmitry Anoshin, Data/Business Intelligence Engineer, AbeBooks

The benefits

A solution that promotes ETL usage

By replacing its existing on-premises database with the Amazon Redshift cloud data warehouse, AbeBooks now has a scalable, powerful data solution that’s easier to maintain than its previous solution. With Matillion ETL for Amazon Redshift, the company’s ETL processes are no longer a mystery. In fact, the
number of ETL users within AbeBooks increased by 150 percent with the Matillion solution. Since users are able to look up existing jobs in Matillion to help create new jobs, DBAs and software engineers no longer have to spend time performing routine ETL tasks for users.

The results

  • Increased ETL literacy within the company by 150 percent.

  • Provides an intuitive interface that makes it easier to collaborate

  • Demystified ETL processes for the company’s employees.

  • Accelerates development cycles, because DBAs and software engineers no longer need to perform ETL support tasks for other employees.

  • Integrates with third-party sources of data, such as AdWords and Facebook, to continually load new data and transform it.

  • Works with Tableau so AbeBooks can visualize data and provide enhancements such as notifications and performance tracking

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