Unlocking data potential: Efficiency, speed, and cost-effectiveness

About

Junglee Games is a leader in the skill-gaming space, with over 100 million registered players. Founded in San Francisco in 2012 and part of the $30 Bn Flutter Entertainment Group, Junglee Games is the fastest-growing skill games company in Southeast Asia. Some of its notable games are Junglee Rummy, Howzat, Junglee Poker, and Carrom Stars, which are available on multiple platforms, including web browsers and Android and iOS devices.

The company’s mission is to build entertainment for millions of people around the world and help them connect with each other through high-quality games. The organization has two main verticals: the engineering division, responsible for building the gaming platform, and the data and analytics division, comprising Data Science, Business Intelligence, and Data Engineering teams. The Data Engineering team is central to providing comprehensive data solutions, catering to Business Intelligence, Finance, Data Science, Acquisition, Retention, and other departments.

Junglee Games has received various accolades for its contribution to the online gaming space. The company continues to innovate and develop new games, expanding its presence in the global gaming market.

Challenge

The data landscape at Junglee Games consists of numerous disparate sources ranging from relational databases and NoSQL databases to Kafka for real-time use cases. Data is processed through streaming and batch pipelines, with Amazon Athena serving as the data analytics engine on top of AWS S3.

Junglee Games faced problems of escalating costs and limited capabilities with Athena. The absence of a caching layer resulted in high S3 GetObject (GET) call charges for repetitive queries. Additionally, security and access controls were inadequate, limiting data masking and column-level permissions.

Solution

After evaluating various options, Junglee Games chose Starburst Enterprise as the replacement for Athena. Migrating from Athena to Starburst proved to be straightforward, with minimal changes needed on the query side as opposed to a more complex migration process required for Dremio.

Additionally, Junglee Games is in the process of deprecating its cloud data warehouse, which will be completed over the next few months. While it has been primarily utilized for repeat-use cases with queries run multiple times a day, Starburst Warp Speed’s smart indexing and caching capabilities and similar pricing model allow for a smooth transition.

Results

After implementing Starburst Enterprise, the company saw the following benefits within three weeks:

1. Cost savings: The transition to Starburst led to a 40% reduction in overall data processing costs, mitigating the expense surge experienced with Athena. This was largely attributable to the efficiency of Warp Speed, which reduced S3 Get API costs by 70%. Moreover, the deprecation of the data warehouse is set to be a major cost-saving measure.
2. Performance gains: With Warp Speed, data lake queries are accelerated through patented technology, which caches and indexes data lake tables. Queries and reports run approximately 30% faster, allowing for more agile data access.
   Enhanced security: Starburst’s robust access controls and data masking capabilities address critical security requirements, particularly for handling personally identifiable information.
3. Scalability: Removing limitations on parallel queries provides Junglee Games with greater flexibility and scalability in its analytics operations.
4. Improved visibility: Starburst provides insights into user activity through built-in access control, enabling better monitoring, and optimization of queries.
5. Delta Lake connectivity: Starburst supports Delta Lake table formats, so Junglee Games can convert its external tables into its preferred open format.
6. Real-time access expansion: Faster query performance has increased real-time data access, reducing reliance on batch processing. Pankaj Arora, Associate Director of Data Engineering at Junglee Games, observes, “Since launching, there has been a 10 to 15% increase in real-time tables, and it will continue to grow over the next few months.”

Future state: Data tool consolidation and enhanced data access

Junglee Games aims to centralize data access through the data lakehouse, streamline operations, and improve business agility by leveraging Starburst’s capabilities. This includes consolidating data tools and connectors directly within Starburst to provide seamless access to a variety of databases.

With Starburst as its end-to-end platform for the open lakehouse, Junglee Games is poised to continue its growth trajectory in the dynamic gaming industry.