ClickHouse use cases: Revolutionizing data analysis

Businesses and organizations looking to unlock the full value of data analytics must leverage robust and high-performance database management systems. With ClickHouse revolutionalizing data analysis through its open-source solution, users can effectively perform real-time analytics, complex queries, and efficient data compression. Whether your organization needs to process large volumes of data, optimize queries or enable various infrastructure features, ClickHouse can be your one-stop-shop system. In this article, we explore the use cases in business and the real world, and how managed ClickHouse services can be a game-changer for business intelligence and data analysis.

What is ClickHouse?What is ClickHouse?

ClickHouse is an open-source database management system with a column-oriented structure that makes it ideal for high-performance analytical scenarios involving large volumes of data. This database management system excels at real-time analytics and online analytical processing (OLAP) which allows businesses to handle their fast and efficient querying workloads and big data analytic needs.

The main features available on ClickHouse include its complex analytical query support, efficient data compression, ability to manage complex analytics and data volumes with a robust query performance compared to other databases. Its columnar structured storage engine and sparse index allow users to take advantage of scalable and cost-effective infrastructure for various use cases such as reporting, business intelligence, fraud detection, time series data analysis, and more. ClickHouse database’s exceptional query performance makes it popular for users seeking to optimize their analytics capabilities without compromising performance.

Why choose ClickHouse for business?Why choose ClickHouse for business?

For several reasons, ClickHouse stands out as a compelling choice for business purposes. Its ability to analyze large amounts of data with exceptional query performance makes it a top choice for most users. Furthermore, it’s extreme low hardware footprint makes it a valuable choice for reusing older servers or as a fast addition to an existing system with extremely low cost. The vast amount of built in integrations (like, MySQL, Postgres, Kafka, S3, Parquet, Rest and a lot more), can reduce the amount of boilerplate code, and therefore spare a lot of code maintaining cost as well. A big plus is the open-source nature of the ClickHouse database management system, which also allows users to create cost-effective solutions for data storage, querying, and analytic needs, as no licensing costs can occur. Through inbuilt features like array handling and a lot of statistical functions, general BI tasks needed for topics such as fraud detection, business intelligence, and time series data processing, users can take advantage of the platform to unlock valuable insights for business growth and stay ahead in today’s data-driven market.

ClickHouse use cases in businessClickHouse use cases in business

If your business requires a fast and scalable means of managing data and analytical workloads, ClickHouse has several applications worthy of consideration. Below are some use cases for ClickHouse in today’s business world.

Real-time analytics and business intelligenceReal-time analytics and business intelligence

ClickHouse boosts powerful real-time analytics and business intelligence capabilities which enables businesses to gain valuable insights and make data-driven decisions. These capabilities are seen in the seamless interactive dashboarding and data reporting interface powered by its support for real-time analytics of even complex data queries. With these features, businesses can create a real-time interactive dashboard and access up-to-the-minute insights on key metrics that could improve decision-making.

Furthermore, ClickHouse through its efficient data compression and columnar storage structure- facilitates ad-hoc data exploration and analysis. This enables users to perform rapid querying and analysis of large datasets, dig deep into their data, uncover trends, and gain actionable business insights. Whether you’re looking to monitor real-time metrics, conduct exploratory analysis, or generate intelligence reports, ClickHouse is a versatile tool for both real-time analytics and business intelligence.

Log and event data analysisLog and event data analysis

ClickHouse excels in log and event analysis with exceptional ​​monitoring, anomaly detection, and root cause analysis abilities. Its real-time analytics and high-performance query mean users can process and analyze high-volume log and event data streams at scale.

Since ClickHouse supports complex analytical queries, users can identify patterns, anomalies, and trends within the data available to them. They can also efficiently store and manage huge volumes of log and event data, thanks to the column-oriented storage structure on ClickHouse that allows for optimized data compression.

Through log and event data analysis on ClickHouse, users can effectively create monitoring and alert systems, detect and respond to issues, while ensuring database operational efficiency. More so, businesses can use the root cause analysis feature to investigate and resolve underlying issues that affect performance which in turn improves user experience.

Time-series data analysisTime-series data analysis

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Being a powerful time series analysis tool, ClickHouse enables users to process IoT sensor data and conduct financial market data analysis, among other applications. Owing to its real-time analytics and query performance capabilities, ClickHouse is able to handle high-velocity data streams generated by IoT sensors. With it businesses can capture, store, and process volumes of time-stamped data at scale for faster and more accurate decision-making.

For financial data analysis, ClickHouse thrives in processing market data, allowing traders and analysts to identify patterns, detect changes in trends and make insightful decisions. With this database management system, businesses and organizations can unlock the full potential of their time-based datasets for critical ideas that will power their growth and success.

Clickstream analyticsClickstream analytics

With the user behaviour and conversion funnel analysis available on ClickHouse, users can seamlessly perform clickstream analytics. Since ClickHouse captures data and analyzes it in real-time, businesses can understand how users interact with their platforms, track their actions, and identify useful trends. User behaviour data can also be captured, compressed, and stored in ClickHouse’s columnar storage system which is well-suited for storing and querying clickstream data.

Additionally, the conversion funnel analysis on ClickHouse helps track and optimize user journeys on business platforms, which in turn improves engagement and conversion rates. ClickHouse achieves conversion funnel analysis by processing and aggregating clickstream data to identify bottlenecks and optimize the user experience. This means ClickHouse can prove valuable for business growth if leveraged to improve the bottom line.

Data warehousing and data lakeData warehousing and data lake

ClickHouse is a powerful database management solution for data warehousing and data lake environments. ClickHouse allows businesses to structure data warehouses where they store, organize, and query data in real time using its columnar storage orientation. As ClickHouse gathers data from different sources via its built-in integrations, its support for complex analytical queries enables it to provide users with accurate business intelligence reports.

Businesses can also integrate ClickHouse with data lakes for seamless ingestion, processing, and analysis of data received in different formats. Big data workloads associated with data lakes can also be processed on ClickHouse since it supports accessing various data lake formats on S3 directly. Whether you need to manage structured data warehouses or data lakes, having a powerful tool like ClickHouse makes data management and processing in these environments simply possible.

Machine learning and predictive analyticsMachine learning and predictive analytics

Database management platforms like ClickHouse play a vital role in Machine Learning and predictive analysis because they support model training and real-time scoring. ClickHouse stores and processes large datasets efficiently, thereby providing a robust infrastructure for the training and evaluation of machine learning models.

Quick data retrieval and feature engineering are also made possible by the column-oriented storage engine on ClickHouse which can assist trained models when deployed to make predictions based on real-time scoring. ClickHouse can also help process incoming data streams, apply predictive models, and generate insights in real-time for accurate business decision-making.

Case studies: Real-world examplesCase studies: Real-world examples

Microsoft Titan: Self-service analytics toolMicrosoft Titan: Self-service analytics tool

ClickHouse plays a pivotal role in Microsoft Titan, a self-service analytics tool for Microsoft’s major web properties. By utilizing ClickHouse’s columnar storage and speedy query processing, Titan empowers users to analyze and explore extensive data sets in real-time for accurate decision-making. ClickHouse’s scalability and proficiency in handling large data volumes make it an excellent choice for delivering valuable insights and driving business growth within Microsoft’s web analytics landscape.

HIFI: Using ClickHouse to aggregate royalties data from revenue streamsHIFI: Using ClickHouse to aggregate royalties data from revenue streams

HIFI, a platform that consolidates royalties data from various revenue streams, uses ClickHouse as its storage and analysis solution. By transitioning from BigQuery to ClickHouse, HIFI gains the advantages of improved query performance and cost-effectiveness, enabling faster and more economical processing of extensive royalty datasets. ClickHouse’s columnar storage and real-time analytics capabilities provide HIFI with a robust solution for aggregating and examining royalties data, enhancing their data-driven decision-making and operational efficiency.

UBER: ClickHouse fast and reliable schemaUBER: ClickHouse fast and reliable schema

Uber utilizes ClickHouse’s fast and reliable schema for their logging infrastructure, enabling them to effectively store and analyze massive quantities of log data generated worldwide. By leveraging ClickHouse’s columnar storage and optimized query capabilities, Uber can process and derive real-time insights from their extensive log data, allowing them to monitor and optimize their services, ensure reliability, and make data-informed decisions to improve their overall operations. ClickHouse’s scalability and efficient schema design provide Uber with a powerful analytics solution specifically designed for their logging requirements.

How can DoubleCloud help you leverage ClickHouse?How can DoubleCloud help you leverage ClickHouse?

To ease the cumbersome workloads involved in managing databases, DoubleCloud provides managed ClickHouse service for businesses. With DoubleCloud, organizations and businesses can maximize data usage and take advantage of the various capabilities of ClickHouse without the operational burden. Meaning that users can focus on their business, while DoubleCloud handles the setup, configuration, monitoring, and maintenance of ClickHouse clusters, ensuring availability and optimal performance. Each managed ClickHouse cluster comes with configuration for Hybrid storage out of the box, allowing businesses to reduce their storage cost significantly by making transparent use of Object Storage like S3, to move rarely needed data to cheaper storage tiers. The platform also takes care of all data backups, security, and infrastructure management to give your IT team some room to focus on other business needs.

The platform also takes care of all data backups, security, and infrastructure management to give your IT team some room to focus on other business needs. DoubleCloud’s expertise in managing ClickHouse spans diverse use cases allowing businesses to save time, reduce complexity, and gain peace of mind knowing they have an efficiently managed database solution for their data analytics and storage needs.

Conclusion: Leveraging ClickHouse for business successConclusion: Leveraging ClickHouse for business success

ClickHouse revolutionizes data analysis and storage with its exceptional performance and usage versatility. Key points to takeaway from this article on ClickHouse use cases include:

• ClickHouse’s column-oriented storage engine and efficient query performance make it ideal for handling large volumes of data and complex analytical queries.

• Its real-time analytics capabilities enable businesses to gain insights and make informed decisions promptly.

• ClickHouse’s support for time series data analysis, log and event data analysis, clickstream analytics, and machine learning enhances its versatility for various use cases.

• It serves as a reliable and scalable data warehouse and data lake solution, empowering businesses to manage and analyze massive datasets efficiently.

• ClickHouse’s open-source nature, low infrastructure costs, and key features like data compression and sparse indexes make it a cost-effective choice compared to other databases.

• By leveraging ClickHouse, businesses can utilize the power of data to drive business success, gain valuable insights, improve decision-making, and stay competitive in the market.

By harnessing ClickHouse’s capabilities and integrating them into their data analytics workflows, businesses can derive actionable intelligence, optimize operations, and achieve growth in today’s data-driven world.