HolidayCheck's Transition to Scala and Akka for Enhanced Application Development
Customer Company Size
Large Corporate
Region
- Europe
Country
- Switzerland
- Germany
- United Kingdom
Product
- Scala
- Akka
- Typesafe Reactive Platform
Tech Stack
- Scala
- Akka
- JavaScript
- NoSQL
- LAMP
Implementation Scale
- Enterprise-wide Deployment
Impact Metrics
- Digital Expertise
- Innovation Output
- Productivity Improvements
Technology Category
- Platform as a Service (PaaS) - Application Development Platforms
- Application Infrastructure & Middleware - API Integration & Management
Applicable Industries
- Software
- E-Commerce
Applicable Functions
- Product Research & Development
- Business Operation
Use Cases
- Remote Asset Management
Services
- Software Design & Engineering Services
- Training
About The Customer
HolidayCheck is a prominent online travel site that originated from the frustration of its founders, Markus Schott and Sascha Vasic, with the lack of authentic hotel information. Established in 2004 in Switzerland, the company has grown rapidly and now operates internationally, offering services in 10 languages. HolidayCheck serves as a platform for millions of users to share and read reviews about hotels and destinations. With over 20-30 million monthly visitors, the site provides information on more than 300,000 hotels and 100,000 points of interest. As the largest German-speaking online travel agency, HolidayCheck experiences significant traffic, especially during peak booking seasons, with over 100 million page impressions per week.
The Challenge
HolidayCheck faced significant challenges in scaling their platform to support new international sites. The existing LAMP stack was becoming increasingly complex and unstable, particularly when trying to duplicate code for different markets. The platform's performance and stability were major concerns, and the need for a new architecture was evident. Christopher Schmidt, the Senior Lead Architect, was tasked with designing a new technology stack that could support high-performance websites and dynamic cloud deployments. The goal was to deploy new or changed front-end applications within days, a challenging objective given the complexities involved.
The Solution
To address the challenges, HolidayCheck transitioned from a LAMP stack to a new architecture based on Scala and Akka. Scala, a general-purpose programming language, and Akka, a runtime for building concurrent, distributed applications, were chosen for their ability to handle high-performance requirements and dynamic deployments. The new architecture emphasized polyglot persistence, asynchronous operations, and industry-standard technologies. To facilitate the transition, HolidayCheck engaged Typesafe to provide Scala and Akka training for their developers. The development teams, organized into Scrum or Kanban frameworks, adapted to the new stack over a 15-month period. Despite initial challenges, particularly with the complexity of Scala, the teams began to realize the benefits of the new architecture, including improved productivity and innovation.
Operational Impact
Quantitative Benefit
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