Overview
NetRefer, a leading iGaming affiliate marketing platform, utilized Azure cloud-native monitoring tools. Shortcomings needed to be resolved, and the business required next-generation observability.
Problems that needed to be solved:
- The cost of the current solution was not viable long-term
- Ability to monitor and detect traffic spikes in real time
- End-to-end visibility for APM traces
- Performance and scalability needed to be future-proof
- Requirement for a unified “single pane of glass” for observability
- Need for highly customizable dashboards
Through GlobalDots’ expertise in selecting and implementing the right observability solution, NetRefer achieved €96,000 in annual savings and gained real-time observability across their entire platform – all within 3 months.
About GlobalDots
GlobalDots has been a global leader in cloud innovation for over 20 years. The company is trusted by over 380 global businesses to connect them with the latest cloud, security, and web performance technologies.
The Problem
NetRefer, a data-driven affiliate marketing platform serving the iGaming industry since 2005, was facing critical monitoring challenges. Their existing setup using Application Insights and Log Analytics was failing to keep pace with their digital transformation:
- Fragmented monitoring prevented the correlation of issues across their complex affiliate management system
- Manual querying through KQL meant a delayed response to performance issues affecting operators and affiliates
- Lack of real-time alerting/dashboards left them blind to traffic spikes – a critical concern in the dynamic iGaming industry
- Escalating costs threatened profitability as their data volumes grew with platform success
- Azure native observability tools were falling short
For a platform managing relationships between online casino operators and their affiliate networks, these shortcomings were unacceptable.
The Challenge
Modernizing Observability Without Disrupting Operations
NetRefer needed to overhaul their monitoring infrastructure while maintaining 24/7 platform availability. Key challenges included:
- Finding the right solution: Navigating the complex observability vendor landscape to find a platform that could handle iGaming-scale traffic
- Cross-team coordination: Aligning Infrastructure, Security, Development, DevOps, and DataOps teams
- OpenTelemetry adoption: Implementing standardized tracing across all services without prior experience
- Zero-downtime migration: The affiliate platform couldn’t afford any disruption to operator or affiliate services
GlobalDots didn't just recommend a vendor and walk away – they were instrumental in making this migration successful. Their expertise in evaluating observability platforms saved us weeks of research, and their guidance throughout the implementation helped us avoid common pitfalls.
Christian Cutajar
Infrastructure Eng. & Security Manager
Software Development
The Solution
GlobalDots & Coralogix – Guided Migration to Unified Observability
GlobalDots conducted extensive research and vendor evaluation before selecting Coralogix as the ideal solution for NetRefer’s needs. The recommendation was based on:
- Platform Capabilities: Consolidated logs, metrics, traces, and security events with iGaming-grade performance
- Cost Efficiency: Predictable pricing model with built-in overage protection for traffic spikes and customer-owned log retention in S3
- Implementation Support: Coralogix’s responsive team ensured rapid deployment
- Future-Proofing: OpenTelemetry is deployed, providing vendor-agnostic instrumentation
As a trusted advisor, GlobalDots supported the migration process:
- Vendor Selection: Evaluated multiple platforms against NetRefer’s specific requirements
- Migration Planning: Coordinated phased approach minimizing risk
- Technical Guidance: Bridged communication between NetRefer’s teams and Coralogix support
- Best Practices: Ensured OpenTelemetry implementation followed industry standards
- Right Price: By utilising AWS S3 for log storage, the amount of indexed (expensive) data drops dramatically, making sure NetRefer only paid for what they really needed
The migration timeline exceeded expectations:
- Infrastructure monitoring: < 1 week
- OpenTelemetry instrumentation: < 2 months
- Full observability setup: ~1 month total
The Results
€96,000 Annual Savings with Enterprise-Grade Monitoring
GlobalDots’ solution selection and migration support delivered transformative results:
- Cost Reduction: €8,000 monthly savings (€96,000 annually) – a critical win for scalable observability. With long-term logs stored in NetRefer-owned S3 buckets
- Unified Visibility: Single dashboard for all platform components, drastically reducing incident response times
- Real-Time Detection: Near-instant visibility into traffic spikes and affiliate activity patterns
- Developer Efficiency: Logs appear very quickly, almost in real-time, with automatic parsing for both backend and frontend
- Exceptional Support: 30-second median response time from Coralogix ensures issues never escalate
- Scalable Architecture: OpenTelemetry implementation positions NetRefer for continued growth without vendor lock-in
The migration has fundamentally transformed how NetRefer monitors their platform, providing the real-time insights essential for maintaining their position as a leading affiliate marketing solution in the competitive iGaming industry.
We were happily surprised that we could overhaul our observability in under 3 months, and we're now saving €8,000 every month while having better visibility than ever before.
Christian Cutajar
Infrastructure Eng. & Security Manager
Software Development
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