Talend: Delivering flexible data software training across the globe, for happier trainees
About Talend
Founded in 2005, Talend is a data integration software vendor that offers a single platform for the management and quality assurance of data across public, private, and hybrid cloud, and on-premises environments.
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About Devoteam G Cloud
G Cloud Google Cloud pure player for over 10 years, Devoteam G Cloud helps companies in their transformation journey, thanks to the Google Cloud ecosystem (G Suite, Google Cloud, Google Maps Platform, devices, etc). With more than 1,300 customers and one million users, Devoteam G Cloud is ranked the number one Google Cloud EMEA partner on new SaaS platforms integration. For more information, visit:
By migrating Talend Academy to Google Cloud, Talend is now able to deliver training sessions globally, reducing waiting times for training environments to load and delivering better user satisfaction.
Google Cloud results
- Extends the global reach of Talend Academy training platform and opens up opportunities for flexible remote training
- Improves the user experience by creating a more stable learning environment that is provisioned faster
- Offers easy scalability and supports new uses for training resources including pre-sales
- Provides a competitive pricing model that enables more free content to drive sales
Launches big-data training environments 3x faster
The world of big data doesn’t have to be complicated. French company Talend offers cloud integration services with a single unified suite called Talend Fabric that helps companies integrate data faster and ensure data quality. Its 3,500 clients across the world come from many sectors such as financial services, government, and healthcare, and include global brands such as Domino’s Pizza.
To better support its customers in managing their data effectively, in 2019 Talend launched Talend Academy. Through a subscription to Talend Academy, users can access learning resources that help them make the most of Talend’s tools, with a focus on practical learning. “Previously, users had to purchase specific training sessions and wait to be granted access by an admin,” explains Frédérique Martin Sainte-Agathe, Enablement Manager at Talend. “The aim of Talend Academy is to provide on-demand access, so if users have a spare hour during their lunch break, they can log on, connect to their course, and launch their VM themselves.”
“Because the purpose of Talend is to interact with different data sources, some of our training environments are complex. We leverage big data clusters as well as real-time services. To ensure a positive learning experience, we require powerful VMs with strong connectivity and an extensive network.”
—Frédérique Martin Sainte-Agathe, Enablement Manager, TalendHowever, Talend Academy’s vision of flexible, on-demand training was compromised, as previously its VMs were slow to start, and customers in the APAC region couldn’t connect at all. The result was frustrated users and lost revenue. To gain stability and improve the start-up times for its VMs, it decided to switch cloud providers. It chose Google Cloud due to the strength of its global network.
“Because the purpose of Talend is to interact with different data sources, some of our training environments are complex,” explains Frédérique. “We leverage big data clusters as well as real-time services. To ensure a positive learning experience, we require powerful VMs with strong connectivity and an extensive network.”
Choosing Google Cloud for greater stability
If the point of a training session is to gain practical experience, then it’s crucial that the training environment is ready to go. Previously, the VMs Talend used for its training sessions took a long time to start, which caused frustration for users but was also a problem for instructor-led sessions. “We sometimes deliver instructor-led sessions with Talend consultants, so it’s an issue for them in the classroom if machines are slow to start,” says Frédérique. “Sometimes we had to offer refunds or other services in compensation.”
In order to improve customer satisfaction, Talend began looking for a new provider. It ran a proof of concept and ultimately chose Google Cloud over another leading provider, due to its wider data center network in Asia-Pacific, which was previously the most problematic region for Talend’s customers. “We saw many Google Cloud products that we could leverage to enhance our training sessions,” says Frédérique, “and the pricing model made the overall cost very attractive.”
Talend chose to work with implementation partner Devoteam G Cloud to build the new infrastructure. “Devoteam G Cloud was able to offer solutions to all our technical challenges and started useful conversations on factors we hadn’t previously considered, such as exactly what kind of storage we required,” explains Frédérique. Following the initial workshop, Devoteam G Cloud delivered two rounds of training and then worked closely with the Talend team member responsible for implementing the project. “It was a really great collaboration,” says Frédérique. “We learned so much just from talking to Devoteam G Cloud, which has real expertise with Google Cloud.”
“Using VMs on Compute Engine is so much more dynamic, since we can simply replace a file in Cloud Storage to update a license instead of rebuilding whole VMs, which previously took a couple of days. The provisioning is done with a Terraform script, so it’s really easy.”
—Frédérique Martin Sainte-Agathe, Enablement Manager, TalendBuilding a more dynamic infrastructure
With Devoteam G Cloud’s help, Talend took a completely new approach to its architecture. Its Talend license and training files are stored in Cloud Storage and delivered automatically when a VM is launched on Compute Engine. “Using VMs on Compute Engine is so much more dynamic, since we can simply replace a file in Cloud Storage to update a license instead of rebuilding whole VMs, which previously took a couple of days,” explains Frédérique. “The provisioning is done with a Terraform script, so it’s really easy.”
Talend uses Google Kubernetes Engine with Cloud DNS and Cloud SQL to connect its services, along with open source software that enables users to easily log in via their web browser. Users can then connect to the resources they need, whether it’s Docker or GitHub running on Compute Engine, or Hadoop clusters on Dataproc. Google’s operations tools provide logging and monitoring services, to make sure VMs are being used efficiently, enabling Talend to optimize costs.
“Since moving to Google Cloud, our big-data training environments not only launch faster, they are also more stable. Our participants can really focus on learning about our products, not on monitoring the cluster.”
—Frédérique Martin Sainte-Agathe, Enablement Manager, TalendLaunching a big data environment in five minutes
With the new Talend Academy infrastructure, a big data training environment is ready in five minutes, instead of the 15-20 minutes it previously took to launch. “Since moving to Google Cloud, our big-data training environments not only launch faster, they are also more stable,” says Frédérique. “Our participants can really focus on learning about our products, not on monitoring the cluster.”
As the VMs are quicker to launch, Talend is able to run more varied events, including live events involving multiple users. “Previously, the VMs would launch one after another, so it could take an hour to provision the resources for a room of trainees at a conference,” says Frédérique. “We don’t have that issue with Google Cloud.”
Frédérique now reports much higher satisfaction levels from Talend Academy users, who are able to connect easily from wherever they are in the world. Based on the user’s location, the network selects the most suitable data center to deploy Compute Engine in order to deliver the best connection speeds. “We’ve even delivered sessions where the instructor was located in India and the trainees were in the UK,” says Frédérique. “That simply wouldn’t have been possible before.”
Supporting pre-sales and driving product adoption
Because training environments are now receiving much better feedback, the Talend pre-sales team is now integrating the training resources provisioned on Google Cloud into its pitches. “We have more and more requests coming from other teams for prospective clients to connect to Talend Academy,” says Frédérique. “We’re now focusing on introducing features to improve the end-user experience, such as a timer that lets users see when their VM will expire. We’re also thinking of providing access to Google Cloud products such as BigQuery, which will extend our training offering and enable customers to learn more about Google Cloud.”
“Since migrating to Google Cloud, we’re no longer limited with what we can do with Talend Academy,” she says. “Hopefully, we’ll be helping many more clients to migrate to the cloud in 2020, and we’re really excited about extending our support for these clients even further.”
Tell us your challenge. We're here to help.
Contact us
About Talend
Founded in 2005, Talend is a data integration software vendor that offers a single platform for the management and quality assurance of data across public, private, and hybrid cloud, and on-premises environments.
About Devoteam G Cloud
G Cloud Google Cloud pure player for over 10 years, Devoteam G Cloud helps companies in their transformation journey, thanks to the Google Cloud ecosystem (G Suite, Google Cloud, Google Maps Platform, devices, etc). With more than 1,300 customers and one million users, Devoteam G Cloud is ranked the number one Google Cloud EMEA partner on new SaaS platforms integration. For more information, visit: