Dealer eProcess scales digital capabilities and enhances customer experiences using Google Cloud Platform
This leading automotive digital agency supports the rapid deployment of dealership websites, managing millions of visitors monthly with a modernized cloud infrastructure.
Industry
Automotive, Transportation, Logistics
Challenge
This automotive digital solutions provider needed to transform its infrastructure to serve its rapidly growing auto retailer customer base.
Outcome We helped Dealer eProcess create a public cloud solution on Google Cloud Platform™ that supports monthly processing of 215 terabytes of data while supporting the growth of its auto-retailer customer base. Solutions Rackspace Elastic Engineering Platforms Google CloudProfessional & Managed Services
Managed ServicesCustomer
Dealer eProcess (DEP), founded in 2006 in Lisle, Illinois, delivers high-converting websites, digital advertising strategies and exceptional customer service for automotive dealerships. With a 99% satisfaction rating, DEP is a recognized leader in the automotive digital marketing industry, enhancing dealership customer experiences and driving vehicle sales through advanced online tools and 24/7 support.
Its flagship product, Everest, is an AI-powered platform that integrates websites, marketing, retail and other essential tools to drive lead generation and sales growth. The platform's AI engine, Sherpa, delivers personalized experiences in real-time, adapting to user behavior without requiring logins or pre-existing data.
"The Rackspace Elastic Engineering team are my Google Cloud Platform experts. They can go do things in Google Cloud quickly when I don’t have time to. They're basically part of my team, and they are essential."
Situation
As Dealer eProcess experienced rapid growth, it needed to scale its infrastructure to support its expanding customer base of over 2,000 auto retailers across North America and parts of Europe. DEP required a reliable deployment process, a scalable compute layer, and low-latency storage operations to maintain its high service standards.
"We have both organic growth and growth through OEM partnerships,” said Jim Bodine, CIO at Dealer eProcess. “When we onboard with an OEM, it can mean adding another 300-400 websites simultaneously. We need the ability to grow rapidly when that happens."
DEP’s expansion through OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) partnerships highlighted the need for a more robust infrastructure solution. It turned to Rackspace Technology® for a platform that could support rapid deployment and efficiently scale resources while managing the high volume of data and traffic integral to its operations.
“Working with Rackspace Technology has always been awesome. They've worked out beautifully for the growth that we've anticipated. It's nice having someone you can reach out to that can connect you to answers."
Solution
Rackspace Technology recommended a collaborative approach to build a comprehensive cloud solution on Google Cloud, with the Rackspace Elastic Engineering team providing guidance and support as DEP set up its initial environment.
Together, the teams developed a production-ready Google Cloud architecture, implemented Infrastructure as Code (IaC) hosted on GitHub, and established a deployment pipeline using GitHub Actions. The new solution leverages several Google Cloud services, including managed instance groups (MIGs) for flexible and scalable compute workloads. MIGs offer high availability through automatic VM repair, application-based autohealing, scalability to meet changing demands, and support for automated updates and stateful workloads. "The MIGs have saved so much time and effort," Bodine said. "We're just deploying a new image, and it rolls itself out. We love it."
In addition, the Google solution incorporates:
- Filestore for high-performance file storage
- Memorystore for in-memory data storage
- Cloud SQL for managed relational databases
- Cloud Load Balancing for traffic distribution
The Rackspace team also supported DEP's modernization of its image build process, contributing to increased automation and efficiency. This increase in efficiency allows them to be prepared to onboard more new websites, more quickly.
“The work improved the overall quality of the code, making it easier to reuse across projects and collaborate with others,” said Nick Heckel, Senior Customer Success Manager, Rackspace Technology. “This was especially impactful due to Dealer eProcess’s lean IT team, who have many responsibilities to manage.”
Dealer eProcess is now capable of supporting 215 terabytes of data and 747 million monthly page views across its websites with Google Cloud Platform.
Outcome
With the support of Rackspace Technology, Dealer eProcess’s migration from a private cloud to Google Cloud provided the flexibility and scalability needed to transform its operations and capabilities. The new infrastructure allows DEP to rapidly spin up instances so that the company can quickly respond to changes in demand, deploy resources efficiently, and scale its services to manage traffic spikes and growth.
The modernized image build process and refactored Terraform code have further enhanced DEP's operational efficiency. "We can deploy changes immediately without having to wait," Bodine said. This agility has been crucial in supporting DEP's growth and its ability to expand its customer base.
The enhanced ability to onboard new customers quickly supports DEP’s growth strategy and maximizes the impact of its cloud solution. The scalability of the Google Cloud solution enabled DEP to manage massive volumes of traffic and data; in just 30 days, DEP will process around 215 terabytes of data, witness 747 million page views and serve 627 million unique visitors.
DEP’s production environment now stands as a model of reliability, processing millions of requests per month. Looking ahead, DEP plans to continue its partnership with Rackspace Technology to drive further innovation and growth. "We look forward to continuing our collaboration with Rackspace Elastic Engineering as we expand our data center environment and advance our technology stack," Bodine said.
About Rackspace Technology
Rackspace Technology is a hybrid, multicloud solutions expert. We combine our expertise with the world’s leading technologies — across AI, applications, data and security — to deliver end-to-end solutions. We have a proven record of advising customers based on their business challenges, designing solutions that scale, building and managing those solutions, and optimizing returns into the future. As a global hybrid, multicloud technology services pioneer, we deliver innovative capabilities to help customers build new revenue streams, increase efficiency and create incredible experiences. Named a best place to work, year after year according to Fortune, Forbes and Glassdoor, we attract and develop world-class talent to deliver the best expertise to our customers. Everything we do is wrapped in Fanatical Experience® — our obsession with customer success that drives us to help each customer work faster, smarter and stay ahead of what’s next.
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