AOL Advertising faced significant challenges in efficiently managing and analyzing vast amounts of user-related data to optimize their ad-serving platform. To address these challenges, AOL integrated Cloudera Distribution for Hadoop (CDH) for high-throughput data analysis and Membase for low-latency random data access, enabling the processing of billions of user events and the maintenance of current user profiles. This architecture allowed for the rapid querying necessary for real-time ad placement decisions. The combination of NoSQL databases and Hadoop is becoming a common approach for handling the data needs of web applications due to their ability to manage large user populations and extensive data generation effectively. NoSQL databases are particularly suited for interactive applications requiring low-latency access, while Hadoop excels in storing and analyzing large volumes of data, providing insights that can enhance user experiences and application growth. This integration reflects a growing trend in web application development, leading to improved scalability and efficiency in data management.