About Nativo

Nativo is an AdTech company that provides a full-stack platform for both publishers and advertisers. Originally an ad server specializing in native formats, Nativo now operates as both a supply-side platform (SSP) and demand-side platform (DSP), serving more than 1.4 trillion bid requests per month. The company supports real-time auction decisions across three AWS regions and enables unique, custom ad experiences for agencies and brands.

Challenge

Scaling beyond MongoDB and Memcached

Nativo's real-time infrastructure relies on two distinct workloads. One is a user profile store, which manages data such as frequency caps and audience segments to determine which ads to bid on. The other handles campaign metadata, including settings, filters, and creative content that must be delivered quickly to the ad server. As the business grew, the MongoDB-based user store and Memcached-based campaign cache each faced challenges with scaling, performance, and operational overhead.

  • Multiple systems with separate limits

    MongoDB handled user profiling (to determine which ads to bid on), while Memcached was used for metadata caching. Each brought distinct operational and scaling challenges.

  • Manual replication across regions

    Supporting three regions required custom-built replication for Memcached and added operational complexity.

  • Latency limits and performance gaps

    Nativo required sub-millisecond latency to support real-time bidding but consistently encountered 3–4ms read latencies, creating a critical performance gap.

  • Storage cost inflexibility

    MongoDB scaled inefficiently and expensively, making it hard to control costs.

Solution

Unified real-time database for both user and metadata

Nativo replaced both systems with Aerospike, simplifying their architecture while improving performance, resiliency, and scalability.

  • Sub-millisecond performance at scale

    Reads are now over 70% faster than before, consistently completing in under 1ms. This enables fast auction decisions and real-time ad rendering.

  • Single platform for distinct workloads

    Aerospike supports both persistent user profiling and volatile metadata caching. These were previously handled by separate systems.

  • Real-time updates and reads

    Campaign metadata is updated in real time via UI and instantly reflected in production thanks to Aerospike's speed.

  • Built-in cross-region replication

    Aerospike XDR provided seamless multi-region consistency from day one, eliminating the need for custom code.

  • Cost-performance gains on AWS

    Graviton-based I4g instances deliver excellent price/performance. Aerospike helps Nativo size efficiently to reduce spend.

Results

Performance, reliability, and real-time scale

Aerospike enables Nativo to deliver high-throughput, low-latency performance while reducing infrastructure complexity.

  • Over 1.4 trillion requests/month

    Aerospike supports massive real-time bidding at global scale with consistent sub-millisecond reads.

  • No downtime in 10+ years

    The system has remained stable and reliable across three AWS regions with minimal maintenance.

  • Fast time to production

    Campaign changes in the UI are reflected in production within seconds, enabling rapid iteration.

  • Minimal operational burden

    Upgrades are performed once or twice per year and are completed non-disruptively, and the DevOps team rarely needs to touch the system.
As we evaluated and tested Aerospike, we realized __it could replace both MongoDB and Memcached__. What blew my mind was the performance. It was __sub-millisecond from the start__.

Marcelo Muniz

VP Engineering, Nativo

We’ve had zero major outages in over a decade of using Aerospike. It’s reliable, fast, and just works.

Eric Hsu

Sr. Site Reliability Engineer, Nativo

Aerospike handles both our persistent user data and our volatile campaign metadata in one system, which used to take two. That simplified our stack and made everything faster.

Marcelo Muniz

VP Engineering, Nativo