Captura.io · High-volume photography platform Case Study

Modern data platform delivers real-time insights and reduces costs

BBI built a modern data foundation on AWS and Databricks for a high-volume photography platform, unifying fragmented systems and turning multi-hour pipelines into near real-time insight.

Client
Software platform for high-volume photography businesses
Technology
AWS Databricks Metabase
Outcome
Scalable foundation supporting real-time insights, lower costs, and continued growth
Scroll
9.3B+
Records onboarded
In three months
600GB
Business-critical data
Across 190+ tables
~2hrs
Processing time
Down from 25 to 40 hours
50-60%
Expected cost reduction
Driven by incremental processing
01
The Challenge

Rapid growth demanded a unified data environment​

Three obstacles stood between Captura and a modern, unified data foundation.

Captura.io is a software company providing end-to-end solutions for high-volume photography studios to operate their businesses, including image processing and editing, marketing, and e-commerce, as well as business reporting and analytics. Today it processes close to a quarter of the high-volume photography market. Due to rapid expansion through mergers and acquisitions, Captura’s data environment was distributed across multiple platforms, including legacy systems and external sources. They needed a solution that would enable them to not only better understand their customers, but also provide them with fast, reliable insights about their own businesses, while reducing costs, increasing flexibility, and building a foundation for AI solutions. Several obstacles stood in the way:

01

One cohesive, modern platform

Captura's platform incorporates multiple products, each with its own systems and data. They needed a single, consolidated platform on a modern tech stack that could adapt to changing technologies and new data sources while ensuring business continuity for customers.

02

Business insights

They needed to reduce data processing times and provide a reliable, single version of truth that Captura and its customers rely on to run their businesses.

03

Scalability and cost

They needed to reduce compute usage and storage costs to optimize their ability to scale efficiently and process data faster.

02
The solution
With a new CTO onboard, Captura.io set out to establish a modern data foundation that could keep pace with growth, support faster decision-making, and provide a consistent, trusted view of its business and clients' businesses. They chose BBI to lead this effort.
"I've worked with BBI at multiple companies over the last 10 years. They were an obvious choice when I saw some of the challenges with our data platform. We didn't have data engineering capabilities or knowledge on the team when I got here. BBI is helping us to set up our data pipelines to align with industry best practices. BBI is helping us build that muscle."
CW
Chris Whyde
Chief Technology Officer, Captura.io

The work focused on three key areas:

01 — Architecture
Data Architecture

Data architecture

BBI designed a scalable data architecture to unify data across legacy systems, acquired platforms, and external sources within a centralized environment. This included standardizing how data is structured and flows through the platform, introducing consistent models and controls to support a reliable, single source of truth across the business.

02 — Platform
Platform Mordernization

Data platform modernization

BBI modernized Captura's data platform on AWS and Databricks, enabling more efficient and scalable data processing. Pipelines were re-engineered to move from full data reloads to incremental processing, improving efficiency and reducing processing time.

03 — Storage & Cost
Storage & Cost Optimisation

Storage and cost optimization

BBI analyzed Captura's storage and processing environment to identify inefficiencies, including unused or misclassified data. Storage was re-tiered, reducing and aligning infrastructure costs more closely with actual business needs.

03
The Outcome

A fast, flexible
foundation for insights & growth

The modernized platform delivers significant improvements in perfomance, cost, and scalability. In just three months, the team onboarded more than 9.3 billion records, from 229 source business tables, which is more than 600 GB. We replaced a process that once took hours, significantly accelerating time to value.

Faster access to data

Processing time down from 25–40 hrs to approximately 2 hrs, with data now consistently available for daily reporting.

Lower processing costs

Costs are expected to decrease by approximately 50–60%, driven by more efficient compute usage.

More consistent, trusted data

Standardized pipelines and controls provide a reliable, unified data foundation, reducing reliance on manual reconciliation.

Improved operational efficiency

Automated monitoring and alerting enable faster issue detection and reduce manual effort accross data operations.

Scalable foundation for growth

A modular architecture enables faster integration of new systems and acquisitions, as well as more efficient onboarding of new data sources.

Faster integration of new capabilities

With a trusted, real-time foundation in place, Captura is positioned to deliver richer analytics and AI-driven insights to the studios it serves, and to keep building new offerings on top of it.

"
BBI brought deep expertise in data and analytics and helped us make the platform more efficient, less costly, and higher quality. When I have a data project, I know they can get it done.
Chris Whyde · Chief Technology Officer, Captura.io

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