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Triple Whale Shifts to ClickHouse to Ensure Maximum Performance in the AI Era

Triple Whale Shifts to ClickHouse to Ensure Maximum Performance in the AI Era

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Last Updated:  
January 31, 2025

We live in the age of data-driven decisions. But being data-driven is not that simple — ecommerce brands generate massive amounts of data—customer behavior, advertising performance, email performance, SMS performance, inventory data—all of which need to be synthesized into real-time insights so you can gain a competitive advantage. 

At Triple Whale, we aim to make these decisions easy for you by delivering them at lightning speed. That’s why we’re thrilled to share more details on our move to ClickHouse, an analytical database perfectly suited to accelerate this delivery and meet the needs of the AI era. 

In this post, we’ll break down what makes ClickHouse so powerful, why it aligns with the growing importance of AI-driven analytics, and how Triple Whale users can benefit from this platform investment.

Editor’s note: This article gets into some technical details, so feel free to share it with your technical team. We believe in complete transparency—think of this as a peek under the hood and into our decision-making process!

The need for a next-gen analytics data store 

Conventional databases (like MySQL or PostgreSQL) were not designed for the huge analytical workloads of modern ecommerce. These systems often become bottlenecks as data volume and query complexity grow. At Triple Whale, we knew we needed a robust data store to keep pace with our clients’ evolving data analytics needs—and support the new wave of AI-powered features we’ve got in the pipeline.

Harnessing data for AI applications

AI isn’t just a hype term; it’s redefining how businesses operate. 

In a 2024 report from Stanford, 42% of organizations report cost reductions from implementing AI (including generative AI), and 59% report revenue increases. And let’s not forget the massive focus on AI agents. Capgemini found that 50% of enterprises plan to use AI agents in the next year, and 82% plan to within the next three years.

From personalized recommendations to sophisticated forecasting, the need to handle massive data sets in real time is non-negotiable for the AI era. A high-performing database is the foundation. 

That’s where ClickHouse comes in—its advanced architecture excels in high-speed analytics, making it an ideal partner for AI-driven workloads.

What is ClickHouse?

ClickHouse is an open-source, analytical database management system that uses a columnar storage model rather than a traditional row-based approach. This design means:

  • Faster aggregations: Summations, averages, and complex calculations can be done with minimal disk I/O.
  • Efficient compression: Data stored by column can be highly compressed, improving query performance and reducing storage costs.
  • Ideal for analytics: Aggregations and filters run on relevant columns only, boosting query speed when scanning vast datasets.

For Triple Whale, this translates into real-time reporting on enormous datasets and the ability to surface insights for customers in seconds, even as data volumes soar.

Distributed architecture

ClickHouse was built with horizontal scalability in mind. As ecommerce evolves, analytics workloads only get more intense. If we need more horsepower—whether memory, CPU, or storage—we can add more nodes to the cluster without overhauling the whole infrastructure. Read more on our engineering blog.

This flexibility ensures we remain agile as we process high volumes of data for advanced AI and machine learning models.

Advanced parallel processing

Modern processors thrive on parallel workloads. ClickHouse is uniquely optimized to distribute queries across multiple CPU cores and cluster nodes using vectorized query execution: 

  • Blazing fast queries: Large queries can be split and executed in parallel, drastically reducing latency.
  • Smooth concurrency: Multiple users can run complex queries simultaneously without compromising performance.
  • Real-time data insights: This is crucial for AI-driven insights—like anomaly detection and advertising performance—where time-to-insight can dictate the success or failure of a campaign strategy.

More on this in our engineering blog.

Why ClickHouse is perfect for the AI era

1. Massive scale for real-time data ingestion, powering real-time AI optimization 

AI models need fresh, high-quality data. With ClickHouse’s lightning-fast ingestion and query speeds, Triple Whale can train and update models more frequently. This results in better predictions—whether forecasting next quarter’s sales or identifying new customer trends.

2. Cost-effective data processing 

Processing huge volumes of data can be expensive. ClickHouse’s efficient columnar storage and compression keep storage requirements and compute costs in check. As a result, we can invest more resources in AI research and feature development—passing along both the savings and the innovations to our users.

3. Future-proofed architecture

The AI landscape moves quickly, and your data architecture must be ready to pivot. With its distributed, container-friendly design, ClickHouse integrates well with modern technologies like Kubernetes, data streaming frameworks (Kafka), and AI/ML tools (Spark, TensorFlow, or PyTorch). We can easily extend our capabilities without overhauling the entire system.

4. High-speed data visualization

AI algorithms aren’t the only analytics consumers. Human-driven insights are still critical, and we’ve made a name by delivering them quickly. ClickHouse’s speed means dashboards and visualizations load and refresh faster than ever. Coupled with AI-driven recommendations, this forms a powerful feedback loop: human insights refine AI models, and AI outputs guide human analysis.

Impact on Triple Whale users

Here’s what Triple Whale users can expect from the shift to ClickHouse:

Improved performance and stability

Expect more responsive dashboards, more granular reporting, and fewer delays during peak query times—like BFCM. Our replatforming to ClickHouse eliminates many performance bottlenecks, ensuring reliable service even during the busiest sales seasons.

Smarter AI-driven insights

We’re constantly enhancing our AI and machine learning capabilities. With ClickHouse’s performance, we can launch more advanced features for Moby AI—faster and with higher accuracy. The end result? Actionable insights you can trust to grow your ecommerce business.

Seamless scalability

Whether your business is a high-growth start-up or an established brand, the volume of data will grow. Triple Whale’s new architecture scales with you, so you don’t have to worry about outgrowing our platform. You’ll always have the computing power you need at your fingertips.

Key AI features that bring this to life

  • Moby Chat’s Prompt Library – A new UI and prompt library to chat with your own AI analyst, Moby, finding insights, answering data questions, identifying trends, building reports, and more, across any dataset—faster than ever. 
  • Widget Insights – Your go-to for instant clarity in custom dashboards. Powered by Moby, it summarizes exactly what you’re looking at and provides actionable recommendations with just one click.
  • Forecasting – Build accurate forecasts in seconds with Moby. Simply tell Moby Chat which metric you want to forecast and for what time horizon, and our advanced time-series transformer model will deliver detailed, accurate predictions.
  • Build a Custom Dashboard – Gone are the days when only data analysts could build custom dashboards & visualizations. Using Moby Chat, just specify the metrics you want to see, and it will start building out each section of your dashboard seamlessly.

ClickHouse database for Triple Whale

Replatforming to ClickHouse is more than a technical upgrade for Triple Whale—it’s our commitment to stay on the cutting edge of data analytics and AI innovation. The AI era demands speed, scalability, and real-time insights, and ClickHouse delivers on all fronts.

For our users, the bottom line is simple: You’ll see faster platform speeds, smarter Moby answers, and advanced AI-driven features that were previously impossible at scale. As we continue to evolve our platform, we’re excited to empower you with next-level insights that you can trust to drive growth and profitability.

Ready to see how Moby can deliver smarter insights that accelerate your growth? 

Sign up for Founder’s Dash or Get a demo

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