Next-Gen Online Advertising: Criteo Leverages AMD EPYC™ Processors for Real-Time Solutions & Enhanced Efficiency

In a digital world where computing power is crucial for the successful delivery of online display ads, Criteo has been able to enhance its infrastructure performance with AMD EPYC™ processors. As a global online advertising platform operating over 30,000 machines across 100 countries, it is essential that Criteo maintains an up-to-date and efficient technology stack to handle millions of requests per second and deliver real-time results for its customers.

Primarily, Criteo focuses on programmatic advertising, enabling advertisers to win bids and display their ads utilizing a real-time bidding market. To tackle the enormity of data and time-sensitive challenges faced in this process, Criteo has built a robust ecosystem, relying on Hadoop distributed storage systems to support its180 petabytes of data. The company's infrastructure consists of regional data centers for online workloads and a separate centralized storage and computing platform for offline workloads, with the latter utilizing machine learning algorithms for optimization.

To meet the increasing demand for computing power, Criteo turned to AMD EPYC processors in 2020. The decision to switch to AMD proved fruitful as it has allowed the platform to process higher daily requests while using fewer but more efficient servers. AMD EPYC processors have not only driven better raw performance but have also enabled higher energy efficiency, leading to a much-improved performance per watt.

Now, Criteo has begun deploying 4th generation AMD EPYC CPU-based servers. This technological leap has led to a server replacement ratio of one to two, meaning one new AMD EPYC server can replace two old machines, resulting in a significant decrease in the overall number of servers required. 

Furthermore, Criteo is developing a liquid cooling solution to further optimize the energy efficiency of their infrastructure and address their sustainability goals. Currently, with more than 17,500 single-socket machines running on AMD EPYC CPUs, Criteo has not only consolidated its infrastructure but also successfully handled an increasing workload without compromising on performance.

In conclusion, the strategic partnership between Criteo and AMD has significantly improved Criteo's infrastructure performance and efficiency, enhancing its ability to deliver real-time programmatic advertising solutions. As a result, Criteo is able to rise to the challenge in a highly competitive and compute-intensive industry. With the power of the AMD EPYC processors fueling its infrastructure, Criteo is well equipped to face the future demands of the online advertising market and ensure a brighter future for its customers.

To learn more about how Criteo benefited from AMD EPYC processors, read the complete customer case study here.