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GovSpend: Real-Time Monitoring and Analysis of User Behavior and Product Usage

GovSpend’s mission is to develop an industry-defining suite of analytics, insight, search, and data feed products built on top of the most comprehensive, accurate, and timely database of government spending, bid, contracts, and contact information in the market. 

GovSpend delivers a complete platform for government agencies and private companies of all sizes to maximize the value of their public-private commercial relationships. 

Understanding the data without disrupting the running systems

David Sargeant, Director of Software Engineering at GovSpend, explains that their team faced the challenge of understanding the data without disrupting the running systems. They needed to analyze the data for insights into user behavior and product usage and enable alerting capabilities. This required a developer-centric approach to data.

"One of the most critical things was having nested data structures."
David Sargeant Director of Software Engineering GovSpend
One of the most crucial requirements for GovSpend was handling nested data structures. They were also looking for a database that could execute queries quickly without any need for specific indexing, provide data replication, high availability, and withstand machine failures.

Finding the right database

After exploring several database options, such as Clickhouse, Rockset, and Snowflake, GovSpend ultimately chose CrateDB for its features. CrateDB's Cloud offering, in particular, stood out as it provided the desired nested structure and a seamless user experience and had the capabilities that GovSpend was looking for: 

CrateDB allows GovSpend to run arbitrary queries and track various metrics through dashboards. Whether it was monitoring page views, logins, session times, or search queries, CrateDB offers a centralized solution for all organization-wide and individual user data. This was essential as GovSpend's users were spread across different locations.
"We explored several solutions like Clickhouse, Rockset, Snowflake, among others. CrateDB is a great fit for us. Having a Cloud offer was perfect along with having the nested structure we were looking for."
David Sargeant Director of Software Engineering GovSpend
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Benefits

The performance and support provided by CrateDB helps GovSpend’s day-to-day run smoothly and, with CrateDB's PostgreSQL compatibility, GovSpend overcame the challenges they faced with other BI tools. The flexibility of data modeling, especially with nested objects, was a significant advantage as it eliminated the need for data rearrangement.

GovSpend highly recommends CrateDB due to its unique features, ease of setup with the cloud offering, and the ability to handle heavy queries seamlessly. The positive experience of finding and quickly resolving a bug through CrateDB's support further solidified their confidence in CrateDB's team.
"With CrateDB, we can count on a super-fast response regarding the support and an overall smooth experience."
David Sargeant Director of Software Engineering GovSpend
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