DATA @ NFLX
Building a Culture of Analytics Everywhere
Tableau Customer Conference
2014.09.09
Blake Irvine
Manager, Device Analytics
Data Science & Engineering
birvine@netflix.com
Albert Wong
Manager, Reporting Platforms
Cloud & Platform Engineering
albwong@netflix.com

Netflix and data in the news...
“Giving Viewers What They
Want” --New York Times
“The Science Behind the
Netflix Algorithms That
Decide What You’ll Watch
Next” --Wired
Data-Mining Boosts Netflix's
Subscriber Base, Showbiz
Clout
--AdAge

BIG
DATA

Big Data at Netflix
Size
● 50+ million members
● 1000’s of devices
● 100’s of systems
● >300B data pipeline events daily
● >10B row tables daily
Ubiquitous
● Data is everywhere
● Many complex systems
● Many engineering teams
producing and consuming
● Non-streaming teams produce
and consume data
● Culturally data driven

How do we innovate
with Big Data?

TOOLS
CULTURE

Tools
DATA STORAGE DATA PROCESSORS DATABASE REPORTING
Sting

Team Structure
Data Science and Engineering
Marketing
data engineering
reporting
analyst
Finance Product Engineering ...
Business Functions

Team Structure
Data Science and Engineering
WE DO
NOT WHAT Marketing
data engineering
reporting
analyst
Finance Product Engineering ...

Netflix Team Structure
Data Science and Engineering
data engineering
reporting
analyst
Marketing
data engineering
reporting
analyst
data engineering
reporting
analyst
data engineering
reporting
analyst
Finance Product Engineering ...
Business Functions

Highly Aligned, Loosely Coupled
data engineering
reporting
analyst
Finance
data engineering
data architect
analyst/reporting
Marketing

Highly Aligned, Loosely Coupled
data engineering
reporting
analyst
Finance
data engineering
data architect
analyst/reporting
Marketing

Freedom & Responsibility
Freedom
Don’t limit access
Don’t limit choices
Reduce constraints
Responsibility
Trust
Don’t allow chaos
Reduce accidents

Protected access
CENTRAL DATA

Protected access
CENTRAL DATA NOT WHAT WE DO

Unlocked access
CENTRAL DATA

Don’t limit choice
CENTRAL DATA OPERATIONAL DATA
LOCAL DATA

OPERATIONAL DATA
Don’t limit choice
Sting
CENTRAL DATA LOCAL DATA

Why is Tableau a good choice?
Quick
Intuitive
Rich Visual Analysis
Storytelling
Emailed Reporting
Reusability

Who uses Tableau?

How do we use Tableau?

Examples
● Application build testing
● Certification tracking
● Operational Excellence

Application Build Testing (1/4)
● Team: Product Engineering
● Context
○ Application automatically tested at every code
checkin
○ Several dozen performance tests run to measure
change and avoid regression
● Problem
○ Limited graphing tool built into test tool
○ Difficult / no customization

Application Build Testing (2/4)
{
"metadata" : {
"TestCaseName" : "Trunk.Rendering.Effects_Mask2",
"MarkerSetId" : 2472165,
"ESN" : "DCQA01",
"UIBuild" : null,
"Build" : "2689",
"JenkinsJob" : "http://builds.netflix.com/job/208/",
"Label" : "#2689 / 208",
"BuildTimestamp" : null,
"Changelist" : "2177893"
},
"results" :
[
{"MeanFps" : 60.284862537264004},
{"MeanFps" : 60.264900662251655},
{"MeanFps" : 60.234541577825162}
]
}
Build / Test

Application Build Testing (3/4)

Application Build Testing (4/4)

Certification Tracking (1/3)
Team: Certification Operations
Context
● We certify the Netflix implementation on many new
consumer electronics devices
Problem
● Time consuming to generate insights across multiple
disconnected systems

Certification Tracking (2/3)
NTS
Certification
Process

Certification Tracking (3/3)

Operational Excellence (1/3)
Team: Data Science & Engineering
Context
● Ensure continuous development does not negatively
impact availability and resilience
Problem
● Multiple programs and data sources
● Need to link source data patterns to engineering tools

Operational Excellence (2/3)

Operational Excellence (3/3)

Where are we with
Tableau?

DATA @ NFLX
● Netflix is known for being data driven
● Big data is available everywhere
● Our culture enables analysis everywhere
● Tableau complements our culture
● We have organic growth throughout Netflix
● Growing part of our reporting platform

What can we answer?
Blake Irvine
Manager, Device Analytics
Data Science & Engineering
birvine@netflix.com
Albert Wong
Manager, Reporting Platforms
Cloud & Platform Engineering
albwong@netflix.com