Zalando optimises its data warehouse with EXASolution.

High-performance, in-memory database from EXASOL supplies target group-specific analyses in real time

Nuremberg, 15 February 2012 – Zalando, Germany's largest online provider of shoes, fashion, beauty and sports equipment, relies on EXASolution, the relational, high-performance database from EXASOL. With the use of the database management solution, Zalando can accelerate its reporting, process complex requests more quickly and carry out analyses more precisely. EXASolution allows the company to react to consumer behaviour in real time, to recognise sales potential early on, to optimise its range according to the target group and thus ensure competitive advantages.

Zalando is growing and is continuously expanding its comprehensive product portfolio. This is reflected in a rapidly increasing amount of data – since mid 2010 the company’s data warehouse has grown five-fold. To evaluate this data Zalando requires a high-performance database that can analyse and evaluate very large volumes of date within a short space of time. The data warehouse management solution that was used previously was no longer able to keep up and provide the data and the reporting that was necessary.

Those responsible for Business Intelligence (BI) at Zalando started looking for a database that could grow with the data and be integrated easily into the existing IT infrastructure. They chose EXASolution. Above all, the infinite scalability of the system and the option to carry out raw data analyses in real time (even during load peaks) were decisive factors in choosing the in-memory solution from EXASOL. Additional reasons for choosing the high-performance database included its great value for money and its low administrative maintenance. The company doesn’t just benefit from the dramatic shortening of query response times but also in that the pressure on the Controlling and BI departments is significantly reduced allowing them to dedicate themselves to strategic topics.

EXASolution 4.0 has been used productively at Zalando since 27 December 2011. The very short migration phase underlines the intuitive operating concept and the simple integration into the existing environment. The high-performance database runs on HP hardware and supports SAP BusinessObjects amongst other things.

"EXASolution has contributed to clear improvement in performance. Analyses that previously took 10 minutes are now finished in 10 seconds", says Eric von Czapiewski, Business Intelligence Manager at Zalando. "In addition to the performance of the system, we were also sold on its high level of scalability. Trial versions working with data volumes that we expect to reach in around two years showed that EXASolution will easily grow with the data.  Moreover it was important that the new solution could be implemented very quickly. In this respect too, EXASOL ideally fulfilled our expectations."

"As a large provider that has to react quickly and flexibly to the consumer behaviour of its online customers, Zalando required particularly capable analysis tools. EXASolution was specially developed for these sorts of complex, time-critical requests and is therefore the perfect basis for the company’s evaluation tools", says Steffen Weissbarth, CEO of EXASOL AG. "Our database solution supports Zalando in expanding its portfolio and significantly reducing the total cost of ownership and the administrative effort."

EXASOL AG, based in Nuremberg, develops and markets the high-performance database EXASolution, based on in-memory technology, which was designed specifically for enterprise warehouse applications and business intelligence solutions. This allows very large volumes of data to be analysed and evaluated in the shortest space of time. Thanks to the high performance and low administrative costs it offers, EXASolution supports businesses not just with valuable decision-making fundamentals from their data, but also by reducing the total cost of ownership. EXASOL AG was named by Gartner as a "Cool Vendor" in the category of Data Management and Integration for 2011. EXASolution 4.0 was used to carry out the TPC benchmark test series for the report published in April 2011.

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