Colin Riddell | Data Platforms 2017
Channel: SiliconANGLE theCUBE
Date: 26/05/2017

Colin Riddell from Epic Gameslive on theCUBE from the historic Wigwam  resort in Litchfield Park AZ

#DataPlatforms #theCUBE

https://siliconangle.com/2017/05/31/company-got-griping-staffers-upgrade-big-data-analytics-dataplatforms2017/

How this company got cautious staffers to upgrade its big data analytics

It’s tough for businesses to choose analytics tools to last when the only constant in big data technology is change. Finally installing it and getting back to work often presents the opposite problem.

“One thing that seems to be constant is resistance to change in a lot of places,” said Colin Riddell (pictured), big data platform architect and engineer at Epic Games Inc.

This was the case for Epic Games staffers who struggled to get used to a new product the company adopted to become more data-driven, Riddell explained to George Gilbert (@ggilbert41) and Jeff Frick (@JeffFrick), co-hosts of theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s mobile live streaming studio, during the Data Platforms event in Litchfield Park, Arizona. (* Disclosure below.)

The trouble started with the fixed-size Hadoop (big data framework) cluster the company was running in a private cloud. Due to frequent overloading, the cluster’s performance degraded, and it eventually became a source of constant maintenance headaches. At last, the company gave up and moved to replace it.

“The idea behind the replacement was really to give us something that was scalable, that would grow in the future, that wouldn’t run into these performance blockers that we were having,” Riddell said.

The company chose Apache Hive data warehouse and analytics software that runs on top of Hadoop. Despite overall better performance from the new software, its interface differences did not go down easy with staffers, he explained.

Data payday
Happily, “Once people started using it and learned how to interact with it properly, the barriers started to fall,” Riddell said, adding that the new technology allows more targeted analytics.

For instance, it has made it easier for them to inject new features into games and analyze them.

“We basically can break those events out and report on them or analyze what’s going on in the game for free with the architecture that we have now,” Riddell said. Desired outcomes from these analytics include player engagement and retention.

Watch the complete video interview below, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s independent editorial coverage of Data Platforms 2017. (* Disclosure: TheCUBE is a paid media partner for Data Platforms 2017. Neither Qubole Inc. nor other sponsors have editorial influence on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)