Pivot by Imply: A High-Speed Data Exploration UI for Druid

In today’s fast-paced world, organizations rely on real-time analytics to make critical decisions. With millions of events streaming in per second, having an intuitive, high-speed data exploration tool to deliver actionable insights is essential—whether it’s for operators, end-users, or customers. Here are just a few scenarios where fast, accessible insights make all the difference:

Verifying Marketing Campaign Success

A marketing leader claims a new campaign is driving user acquisition. Can they verify this claim by slicing across impressions, interactions, and conversions in real time?

Identifying Production Issues

A plant operations manager spots a rise in product defects during a daily review. Can they quickly identify the root cause to keep production on track?

Ensuring Smart City Safety

A smart city administrator gets an alert about temperature spikes at several locations. How can they take immediate action to keep infrastructure safe?

Apache Druid is the engine powering these real-time analytics scenarios, but what’s the right approach for the UI? How do you deliver an easy and fast way for your end users to access and extract insights from highly granular data?

The Challenge of Traditional BI Tools

Organizations often face challenges with traditional BI reporting models, which typically combine a cloud data warehouse with off-the-shelf visualization tools like Tableau or Looker. These models require pre-aggregating data to provide the metrics and dimensions end users want at the speed they need. This creates data fidelity issues because users are confined to predefined dashboards. Ultimately, those who wish to interact with the data lose the ability to slice, dice, and drill down into raw data, especially at high data volumes.

Challenges with Traditional BI Tools:

• Pre-Aggregated Data Constraints: Limits user ability to perform detailed, on-the-fly analysis.
• Data Fidelity Issues: Users are confined to predefined dashboards, restricting deep data exploration.
• Scalability Concerns: Struggles with handling high data volumes efficiently.

Enter Pivot from Imply: Transforming Self-Service Analytics

Imply Pivot simplifies data exploration with its drag-and-drop interface, making it accessible to everyone, regardless of their technical expertise.

By combining Druid’s robust capabilities with a flexible UI, Pivot enables real-time interaction with massive datasets. With data cubes for drilling down into details and dashboards for a high-level overview, Pivot delivers the power of a custom-built UI without the lengthy development time.

Key Features of Pivot:

• Drag-and-Drop Interface: Simplifies data exploration for all users, regardless of technical expertise.
• Real-Time Interaction: Leverages Druid’s capabilities to handle massive datasets seamlessly.
• Zoomable Views: Seamlessly transition between detailed data cubes and high-level overviews, allowing users to zoom in for granular insights or zoom out for comprehensive trends without lengthy development times.

Why Choose Pivot for Your Data Needs?

Pivot is designed for ease of use, allowing users to explore, filter, and interact with data without requiring SQL expertise. Unlike traditional BI tools that mandate pre-aggregated data, Pivot’s data cubes support flexible, on-the-fly analysis. This interactive experience lets everyone make data-informed decisions quickly and independently.

Getting Hands-On: Data Cubes in Action

Data cubes in Pivot provide a dynamic framework for exploring data. With features like time, geography, and other dimensions, users can focus on specific parts of their data to extract meaningful insights. Here’s how easy it is to explore:

Filtering: Quickly zoom into a time range, location, or specific attribute by applying filters. You can select a recent period, filter based on text, or apply regex filters to pinpoint key insights.

High-Frequency Updates: For streaming data, Pivot lets you adjust polling frequency so insights stay fresh. All time-based calculations are timezone-aware, so users can set a preferred timezone and view data in context.

Comparative Analysis: Dragging the Previous Period option into the show bar allows for quick comparisons (like this week versus last), revealing how metrics change over time.

Exploring and Filtering with Ease

Pivot’s filter bar at the top of each data cube lets users refine data further using several methods:

• Include/Exclude: Show or hide specific values.
• Intersect: Display selected values in multi-value dimensions.
• Contains and Regex: Filter text values by search or regular expression.

For complex filtering, Pivot even supports IP address searches and nested column filtering, making it easy to locate specific data in vast datasets. And with options for multi–value dimensions, users can customize the view to highlight the data that matters most.

Visualizing Data in Real Time

Pivot offers a wide array of visualization options, enabling users to drill down, analyze, and interact directly with visual elements to uncover deeper insights. 

Each visualization is automatically optimized based on selections but can be adjusted anytime through the Visualize menu for greater control over how data is presented.

Seamless White-Labeling and Embedding Options

For companies looking to integrate analytics into their own branded experience, Imply Pivot offers powerful white-labeling and embedding capabilities. Pivot’s flexible design allows for full customization to match your brand—whether through logos, colors, or layout—creating a seamless extension of your product. With a straightforward setup, you can embed Pivot directly into your application, providing users with interactive, real-time analytics as part of a cohesive, branded experience. Companies like ironSource use this feature to offer real-time insights through “Real Time Pivot,” a white-labeled solution that scales effortlessly and aligns with their visual identity.

Real-World Success Stories

Twitch: Data-Driven Decisions Across Teams

Twitch, the live-streaming platform boasting 9.5 million active streamers, leverages Pivot to enable data-informed decision-making across its diverse teams. Nicholas Ngorok, Twitch’s Engineering Manager for Data Infrastructure, states, “Our goal was to empower both data-savvy and non-data staff to leverage data in their decision-making.”

Key Achievements:

• Real-Time Data Access: Engineers and product managers can explore user engagement across various regions and time frames within seconds.
• High Adoption Rate: Over 25% of Twitch’s workforce utilizes Pivot daily, generating approximately 70,000 queries each day.

ironSource: Custom Insights for Customers

ironSource, a leading platform in the app economy, offers customers real-time insights through their white-labeled version of Pivot, known as Real Time Pivot. Capable of handling up to 3 million events per second, ironSource ensures low-latency, high-throughput analytics without requiring SQL expertise. Jonathan Kaplan from ironSource explains, “Pivot allows end users to run queries without a single line of SQL. You can drop a field and it will generate a query for you.”

Key Features:

• User-Friendly Interface: Enables customers to access and explore data independently with intuitive visualizations.
• Branded Experience: Maintains ironSource’s branding while providing a seamless data exploration tool.

GameAnalytics: Maximizing Data Potential 

GameAnalytics (GA), the leading analytics platform for mobile games, utilizes Imply Pivot to convert extensive game event data into actionable, real-time insights. Processing data from over 2 billion monthly players across nearly 100,000 games with Apache Druid, GA transforms these events into real-time statistics and visual graphs. This integration allows GA to:

• Monitor Performance: Track customer performance and feature usage effectively.
• Generate Comprehensive Reports: Produce detailed reports on key metrics like Monthly Active Users (MAU).
• Facilitate Informed Decision-Making: Support various departments, including product development, business development, and finance.

Ioana Hreninciuc, CEO of GameAnalytics, remarks, “Pivot is a valuable tool adopted by almost everyone in the company. It was an easy switch to make and has saved us a lot of time, money, and resources.”

Experience Pivot in Action with Imply Polaris

Ready to see Pivot in action? Begin your journey by signing up for a free account of Imply Polaris, a fully managed Druid DBaaS that includes Pivot’s powerful visualization engine. Plus, you’ll receive a US$500 credit to use within your first 30 days—no credit card required!

Polaris combines Druid’s robust architecture with Pivot’s intuitive interface, equipping you with everything you need to build an analytics application in just minutes.If you have questions or want to learn more, set up a demo with an Imply expert.