Case Study: Kernel Analytics achieves scalable, cost-effective Big Data analytics and a competitive edge with Microsoft Azure

Boutique Spanish analytics experts help a major airline create a Big Data platform to gain a competitive edge

Kernel Analytics, a boutique Barcelona analytics firm, was engaged by a major European airline that had amassed extensive online customer data but lacked the in-house big data skills and platform to turn it into personalized marketing and retention strategies. The airline wanted to build internal analytics capability rather than outsource insights, so it needed a robust, scalable solution to analyze past behavior and drive targeted offers.

Kernel delivered a turnkey Big Data platform by deploying Cloudera Enterprise on Microsoft Azure—implementing a production Hadoop cluster (three master DS12 nodes, three worker DS13 nodes on CentOS), migrating existing data, running full ETL processes, and adding high-performance R/Python servers for modeling. The result: a cost-effective, highly scalable analytics hub enabling better customer segmentation and personalized recommendations today, with a clear roadmap for fraud detection and real‑time pricing and multiple follow-on projects underway.

Kernel Analytics

Miquel Camprodon

Team Lead