Case Studies > Glide.me Leverages Redis Cloud to Scale Their 200G In-Memory Database

Glide.me Leverages Redis Cloud to Scale Their 200G In-Memory Database

Customer Company Size

Large Corporate

Region

America

Country

United States

Product

Redis Cloud
Amazon Web Services (AWS)
Pubnub

Tech Stack

Redis
MongoDB
AWS EC2
AWS S3
AWS CloudFormation

Implementation Scale

Enterprise-wide Deployment

Impact Metrics

Productivity Improvements
Customer Satisfaction
Digital Expertise

Technology Category

Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) - Cloud Storage Services
Analytics & Modeling - Real Time Analytics
Application Infrastructure & Middleware - Data Exchange & Integration

Applicable Industries

Software
Telecommunications

Applicable Functions

Business Operation
Quality Assurance

Use Cases

Real-Time Location System (RTLS)
Predictive Maintenance
Remote Asset Management

Services

Cloud Planning, Design & Implementation Services
System Integration
Data Science Services

About The Customer

Glide is the world's first mobile video instant messenger, allowing users to send text and video messages via live stream. The platform offers the flexibility to read or watch messages in real-time or later. Hosted on AWS and Redis Cloud, Glide leverages a massive real-time network to deliver consistent performance for millions of users. The application is available on Android and iOS operating systems and uses a combination of AWS services and Redis Cloud for backend hosting and data storage. Glide's innovative approach to mobile messaging has made it a popular choice for users seeking real-time communication.

The Challenge

Glide faced multiple challenges in scaling their real-time messaging platform. One major challenge was the need for real-time reminders and analytics. Every time a user received a message, a reminder had to be created, requiring push notifications in real-time. This necessitated persistent in-memory storage across servers and real-time aggregated analytics to support admin performance reports. Another challenge was a client-side bug that caused session tokens to be corrupted, leading to new login requests for every interaction. This resulted in a 'memory leak' in Redis, causing unnecessary data volume growth. Lastly, Glide faced issues with Pubnub message counters due to the large volume of messages created daily, which exceeded expected limits.

The Solution

To address the challenges, Glide implemented several solutions leveraging Redis Cloud. For real-time reminders and analytics, Redis Labs' platform enabled Glide to store and share unread and missed messages efficiently. Aggregated analytics were incremented to a counter in Redis, which later persisted to a backend database for admin panel viewing. This approach minimized strain on the backend database. To resolve the session token bug, Glide moved sessions to a new database to isolate the issue and then addressed the faulty application logic. Redis Cloud professionals guided the process, ensuring minimal impact on the application's service. For Pubnub message counters, Glide used Redis to increment a counter every time a message was sent, facilitating easier tracking for Pubnub metrics. Redis Cloud's auto-scaling capabilities ensured seamless performance despite increased workload.

Operational Impact

Redis Cloud enabled Glide to store and share unread and missed messages efficiently, reducing the need for repeated database queries.
Aggregated analytics were incremented to a counter in Redis, minimizing strain on the backend database and facilitating real-time performance reports.
The session token bug was resolved by isolating the issue in a new database and addressing the faulty application logic, drastically reducing session storage space.
Redis Cloud's auto-scaling capabilities ensured seamless performance, allowing Glide to handle increased workload without manual intervention.
Glide now has separate databases for sessions and user data, providing plenty of room for future growth and efficient data management.

Quantitative Benefit

Glide's Redis database can now scale up to 400GB, providing ample room for future growth.
The session storage issue was resolved, significantly reducing the amount of space needed for session storage.