How Buildkite transformed test analytics and cut costs with ClickHouse Cloud

Buildkite transitioned to using ClickHouse Cloud for real-time test analytics, significantly enhancing its capabilities and reducing infrastructure costs despite a substantial increase in data ingestion. This shift enabled Buildkite to retire several systems, including DynamoDB and reduce reliance on others like Aurora and Flink, while managing a massive influx of test events at a peak rate of 25,000 per second. ClickHouse's speed, ease of use, and SQL compatibility allowed Buildkite to offer customers more flexible and intuitive analytics, transforming how they interact with test data by supporting on-demand queries. This change not only simplified Buildkite's tech stack but also improved performance and reduced costs, leading to savings and an enhanced customer experience. The adoption of ClickHouse Cloud has empowered Buildkite to deliver more robust and rapid analytics, meeting customer demands for real-time, customizable data insights, and allowing the engineering team to focus on innovation rather than extensive database management.