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BBM Messenger selects Pythian for major Google Cloud Platform migration

Ottawa, ON – June 15, 2017 – Pythian, a global IT services company that helps businesses adopt technologies to better compete, announced today that Creative Media Works, operating as BBM Messenger, has selected Pythian to help them move their mission-critical IT infrastructure for Android, iOS and Windows consumer BBM from BlackBerry on-prem data centers in Canada to Google Cloud Platform (GCP) in Asia.

BBM is one of the largest mobile messaging applications in the world. Since it was created in August 2005, BBM has evolved from a pure messaging application (text and video) to a social ecosystem unifying chat, social, commerce and services including bill payment, top-up, vouchers/coupons, games, video, comics, shopping, travel, career and polls.

In order to accommodate a significant increase in media consumption by its global users, and to improve performance across key markets, BBM recognized that migrating its databases to the cloud was a business imperative. The company chose Google Cloud Platform as their cloud platform and enlisted Google to help them find a services provider that had experience with both on-prem data centers and Google Cloud Platform to migrate their complex IT infrastructure to the cloud as quickly as possible.

BBM also aligned with Pythian’s delivery model. “We need a partner who shares our urgency, and can accommodate our needs as our business evolves in both North America and Asia. Pythian’s remote work model allows us to scale up as required on short notice and even around the clock, providing the flexibility that we need,” said Matthew Talbot, CEO of Creative Media Works, the company that operates and runs BBM globally.

Pythian puts its full stack experience to work to go beyond traditional “lift-and-shift”, architecting a cloud solution that will be automated and take full advantage of the agility and scalability of GCP’s cloud services. 

About BBM

On 27 June 2016, Creative Media Works, a division of PT Elang Mahkota Teknologi Tbk. (Emtek, IDX:EMTK) – one of Indonesia’s largest media, content and technology businesses – announced a long term strategic alliance with BlackBerry Limited to accelerate consumer BBM’s research and development in offering new and exciting features, services and content to the global consumer market. As part of this strategy, BBM is making its APIs available to expedite the growth of partners and consumer services such as:

  • Content – music and video streaming, games, sports, news, celebrity blogs, horoscopes and more
  • Commerce – shopping, gifting and coupons/vouchers
  • Online to Offline Commerce – booking movies, travel, health services, real-estate or job postings
  • Finance – P2P payments, money transfer, mobile phone re-charge and utilities billing

Creative Media Works now operates under the BBM banner as a stand-alone consumer focused business with teams operating from Waterloo, Mississauga, Ottawa, Singapore, Jakarta, UAE and South Africa. For more information, visit www.bbm.com.

Trademarks, including but not limited to BBM and BBM Design are the trademarks or registered trademarks of BlackBerry Limited, used under license, and the exclusive rights to such trademarks are expressly reserved.

Android is a trademark of Google Inc.

iOS is a registered trademark of Cisco Systems, Inc. and/or its affiliates in the U.S. and certain other countries. iOS® is used under license by Apple Inc.
Windows® Windows is either a registered trademark or trademark of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries

About Pythian

Pythian is a global technology services company that helps businesses compete by adopting disruptive technologies such as advanced analytics, big data, cloud, databases, DevOps and infrastructure management to advance innovation and increase agility. Specializing in designing, implementing, and managing systems that directly contribute to revenue growth and business success, Pythian’s highly skilled technical teams work as an integrated extension of our clients’ organizations to deliver solutions that enable the strategic use of data, accelerate software delivery, and ensure reliable, scalable IT systems.

For more information on Pythian services for Google Cloud Platform visit /google-cloud-platform/.

Media contact

Lesley Slack

613-818-6855

media@pythian.mykana.com