# Best-of-Breed CDP Architecture ### About this export | Field | Value | | --- | --- | | **content_type** | lesson | | **platform** | contentstack-academy | | **source_url** | https://www.contentstack.com/academy/courses/cdp-strategies/best-of-breed-cdp-architecture | | **course_slug** | cdp-strategies | | **lesson_slug** | best-of-breed-cdp-architecture | | **markdown_file_url** | /academy/md/courses/cdp-strategies/best-of-breed-cdp-architecture.md | | **generated_at** | 2026-04-28T06:55:38.334Z | > Part of **[CDP Strategies](https://www.contentstack.com/academy/courses/cdp-strategies)** on Contentstack Academy. **Academy MD v3** — structured for retrieval; no quiz or assessment keys. #### Video details #### At a glance - **Title:** Best-of-Breed CDP Architecture - **Duration:** 10m 39s - **Media link:** https://cdn.jwplayer.com/previews/E5UultiF - **Publish date (unix):** 1750846312 #### Streaming renditions - application/vnd.apple.mpegurl - video/mp4 · 180p · 180p · 141707 kbps #### Timed text tracks (delivery) - **thumbnails:** `https://cdn.jwplayer.com/strips/E5UultiF-120.vtt` #### Transcript As companies begin the important process of implementing their CDP and onboarding customer data, a few key questions consistently emerge. One of those questions is, what is the right architecture for us? In other words, where does a CDP fit in our data and marketing technology stack? In this video, you'll learn about the different approaches to implementing and integrating a CDP into your current data and marketing technology stacks. We'll walk through the best-of-breed architecture approach that most companies are now adopting to get the most out of their existing data infrastructure. And you'll learn about the benefits of this best-of-breed approach versus an all-in-one CDP. To start with, let's take a look at the CDP categories, the different types of CDPs, and then the architectures that underlie those CDPs. In our experience, the companies that get the most from their customer data and technology investments take a best-of-breed approach. As you can see from this graphic, Gartner has identified four different types of CDPs. On the left-hand side, you have suite vendors, which provide an all-in-one solution, all of the tools being offered by Adobe or Salesforce. The challenge there is vendor lock-in, oftentimes very poor integrations into other tools. And most importantly, the suite vendors are not integrated with your data warehouse or your current data infrastructure. On the right-hand side, you have smart hubs. Smart hubs provide a very specific set of capabilities that you can sit on top of your existing cloud data warehouse infrastructure. This also will provide you and your organization clear distinction between data tools in your data warehouse and marketing tools, your smart hub CDP. So what is a best-of-breed CDP architecture, and what does that mean? The two choices here, which are critically important for every company to evaluate, are on the one hand, an all-in-one dislocated CDP. This means your CDP platform is dislocated or disconnected from your existing data warehouse or your single source of truth. On the other hand, you have a best-of-breed integrated CDP. This means your CDP platform is running and connected directly to your existing cloud ecosystem and data warehouse. Some of the key differences here are duplicate data warehouse infrastructure, if you choose the all-in-one dislocated CDP. You can have data scattered across different locations, latency, and costs related to ingress and egress of data, a distance or a separation from your advertising platforms, and less powerful direct integrations into the full marketing ecosystem. And finally, oftentimes you'll find with all-in-one CDPs, an over-promise of MDM or data management capabilities. With your best-of-breed approach, you are powering your CDP with your existing infrastructure, utilizing your single source of truth and your data, your customer data, as a core asset to drive decisioning. Your data is centralized already, held within a secure cloud environment, which Lytx or a best-of-breed CDP can sit on top of, and you are minimizing latency and complexity. Finally, closer integration into your advertising platforms will allow you to leverage seamless integration into tools such as DV360, the Trade Desk, or Google Ad Manager. This is a visual representation of a best-of-breed integrated approach. As you can see, on the left-hand side, you have data, consumer data coming in from real-time streams like web and mobile or email, and batch data, which is coming in from a database or a transactional database. That data then goes through an ETL process and lands in your data warehouse, whether that's in Azure or AWS or Google Cloud. This is your single source of truth and the place where you can control and store your customer data. On top of that, you use a best-of-breed CDP approach by selecting a CDP, a smart hub CDP, that's focused on insights, decisioning, segmentation, and activation. And what that enables you to do is have a single-purpose tool for marketers designed for marketing users to deliver the right experiences to the right customers and prospects on the right channels. The advantage of using your cloud data platform as your single source of truth and integrating analytics, all of your customer data, build your own models, and then sync those into your smart hub CDP and resolve identities. Once you have that marketing profile, that insight about your customers and prospects is available to your marketing activation tools and available to your reporting tools. A smart hub CDP will provide your marketing team critical marketing use cases and insights on top of your data warehouse. Being able to collect and join customer data, deliver those critical insights, including content and product recommendations, those are the types of marketing use cases that you can build and deliver directly on top of a best-of-breed approach. And finally, with a smart hub CDP like Lytx, you are able to sync and orchestrate those campaigns in real time. So what are the options for every business to consider? Option number one, we see this frequently adopted by companies that do not currently have a customer data infrastructure provider selected, meaning they aren't already using Segment or Telium or Rutterstack as a way to connect customer data into marketing tools. In this graphic, you can see that Lytx provides the collection mechanism from streams and batch data processing, feeds that directly either into your Customer 360 in Azure or AWS or Google Cloud, but also syncs that data directly into Lytx for real-time behavioral insights, an engagement profile, user attributes that are now available from your data warehouse, and ultimately the ability to create audiences, make decisions, and orchestrate next best experiences for all of your customers and prospects. The second option available is when a customer has already adopted a customer data infrastructure provider like Segment or Rutterstack. In this case, Lytx provides the same set of features and capabilities, but the CDI is providing data routing and connectivity already, and Lytx will receive those events directly from the CDI instead of connecting directly into the streams or batch databases. When you consider the options, all customers should be thinking about the best possible way to assemble an integrated approach from different vendors rather than an all-in-one monolithic architecture where one single vendor provides all of the capabilities across a single stack. The main difference between these two approaches is that one vendor today is not capable of creating great software across all of these different capability sets, especially when we consider Amazon, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud as providing key functionality related to your Customer 360. In the case of a CDP, a best-of-breed approach has become the standard because of the requirements. By combining your existing cloud data warehouse and a smart hub CDP, you are designing the best way for your IT teams and data teams to have tooling and data management features necessary to create a single source of truth and a Customer 360 profile and deliver to your marketing teams a friendly user experience and application to help marketing understand, organize, and activate against first-party customer data. The Lytx CDP provides the final piece to your marketing puzzle to unlock your customer, unlock all of your data that sits inside of your Customer 360 data warehouse, and transform your marketing programs and delight and deliver on the promise of personalization. #### Subtitles (WebVTT) ```webvtt WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:09.100 As companies begin the important process of implementing their CDP and onboarding customer 2 00:00:09.100 --> 00:00:15.300 data, a few key questions consistently emerge. 3 00:00:15.300 --> 00:00:20.320 One of those questions is, what is the right architecture for us? 4 00:00:20.320 --> 00:00:27.460 In other words, where does a CDP fit in our data and marketing technology stack? 5 00:00:27.460 --> 00:00:33.180 In this video, you'll learn about the different approaches to implementing and integrating 6 00:00:33.180 --> 00:00:37.620 a CDP into your current data and marketing technology stacks. 7 00:00:37.620 --> 00:00:41.920 We'll walk through the best-of-breed architecture approach that most companies are now adopting 8 00:00:41.920 --> 00:00:46.140 to get the most out of their existing data infrastructure. 9 00:00:46.140 --> 00:00:51.820 And you'll learn about the benefits of this best-of-breed approach versus an all-in-one 10 00:00:51.820 --> 00:00:53.680 CDP. 11 00:00:53.680 --> 00:01:00.240 To start with, let's take a look at the CDP categories, the different types of CDPs, and 12 00:01:00.240 --> 00:01:04.800 then the architectures that underlie those CDPs. 13 00:01:04.800 --> 00:01:10.120 In our experience, the companies that get the most from their customer data and technology 14 00:01:10.120 --> 00:01:13.440 investments take a best-of-breed approach. 15 00:01:13.440 --> 00:01:20.180 As you can see from this graphic, Gartner has identified four different types of CDPs. 16 00:01:20.180 --> 00:01:27.020 On the left-hand side, you have suite vendors, which provide an all-in-one solution, all 17 00:01:27.020 --> 00:01:31.700 of the tools being offered by Adobe or Salesforce. 18 00:01:31.700 --> 00:01:40.140 The challenge there is vendor lock-in, oftentimes very poor integrations into other tools. 19 00:01:40.140 --> 00:01:45.780 And most importantly, the suite vendors are not integrated with your data warehouse or 20 00:01:45.780 --> 00:01:49.260 your current data infrastructure. 21 00:01:49.260 --> 00:01:53.140 On the right-hand side, you have smart hubs. 22 00:01:53.140 --> 00:02:00.580 Smart hubs provide a very specific set of capabilities that you can sit on top of your 23 00:02:00.580 --> 00:02:05.700 existing cloud data warehouse infrastructure. 24 00:02:05.700 --> 00:02:15.700 This also will provide you and your organization clear distinction between data tools in your 25 00:02:15.700 --> 00:02:22.700 data warehouse and marketing tools, your smart hub CDP. 26 00:02:22.700 --> 00:02:30.220 So what is a best-of-breed CDP architecture, and what does that mean? 27 00:02:30.220 --> 00:02:37.260 The two choices here, which are critically important for every company to evaluate, are 28 00:02:37.260 --> 00:02:42.260 on the one hand, an all-in-one dislocated CDP. 29 00:02:42.260 --> 00:02:49.660 This means your CDP platform is dislocated or disconnected from your existing data warehouse 30 00:02:49.660 --> 00:02:52.180 or your single source of truth. 31 00:02:52.180 --> 00:02:57.760 On the other hand, you have a best-of-breed integrated CDP. 32 00:02:57.760 --> 00:03:03.900 This means your CDP platform is running and connected directly to your existing cloud 33 00:03:03.900 --> 00:03:06.220 ecosystem and data warehouse. 34 00:03:06.220 --> 00:03:13.420 Some of the key differences here are duplicate data warehouse infrastructure, if you choose 35 00:03:13.420 --> 00:03:15.940 the all-in-one dislocated CDP. 36 00:03:15.940 --> 00:03:23.060 You can have data scattered across different locations, latency, and costs related to ingress 37 00:03:23.060 --> 00:03:32.080 and egress of data, a distance or a separation from your advertising platforms, and less 38 00:03:32.080 --> 00:03:36.920 powerful direct integrations into the full marketing ecosystem. 39 00:03:36.920 --> 00:03:44.720 And finally, oftentimes you'll find with all-in-one CDPs, an over-promise of MDM or data management 40 00:03:44.720 --> 00:03:46.800 capabilities. 41 00:03:46.800 --> 00:03:54.040 With your best-of-breed approach, you are powering your CDP with your existing infrastructure, 42 00:03:54.040 --> 00:04:01.680 utilizing your single source of truth and your data, your customer data, as a core asset 43 00:04:01.680 --> 00:04:04.040 to drive decisioning. 44 00:04:04.040 --> 00:04:10.560 Your data is centralized already, held within a secure cloud environment, which Lytx or 45 00:04:10.560 --> 00:04:17.760 a best-of-breed CDP can sit on top of, and you are minimizing latency and complexity. 46 00:04:17.760 --> 00:04:24.060 Finally, closer integration into your advertising platforms will allow you to leverage seamless 47 00:04:24.060 --> 00:04:32.100 integration into tools such as DV360, the Trade Desk, or Google Ad Manager. 48 00:04:32.100 --> 00:04:37.820 This is a visual representation of a best-of-breed integrated approach. 49 00:04:37.820 --> 00:04:42.860 As you can see, on the left-hand side, you have data, consumer data coming in from real-time 50 00:04:42.860 --> 00:04:48.660 streams like web and mobile or email, and batch data, which is coming in from a database 51 00:04:48.660 --> 00:04:51.300 or a transactional database. 52 00:04:51.300 --> 00:04:57.420 That data then goes through an ETL process and lands in your data warehouse, whether 53 00:04:57.420 --> 00:05:00.980 that's in Azure or AWS or Google Cloud. 54 00:05:00.980 --> 00:05:06.260 This is your single source of truth and the place where you can control and store your 55 00:05:06.260 --> 00:05:08.540 customer data. 56 00:05:08.540 --> 00:05:19.540 On top of that, you use a best-of-breed CDP approach by selecting a CDP, a smart hub CDP, 57 00:05:19.540 --> 00:05:27.820 that's focused on insights, decisioning, segmentation, and activation. 58 00:05:27.820 --> 00:05:34.660 And what that enables you to do is have a single-purpose tool for marketers designed 59 00:05:34.660 --> 00:05:42.700 for marketing users to deliver the right experiences to the right customers and prospects on the 60 00:05:42.700 --> 00:05:46.400 right channels. 61 00:05:46.400 --> 00:05:53.480 The advantage of using your cloud data platform as your single source of truth and integrating 62 00:05:53.480 --> 00:05:59.800 analytics, all of your customer data, build your own models, and then sync those into 63 00:05:59.800 --> 00:06:04.000 your smart hub CDP and resolve identities. 64 00:06:04.000 --> 00:06:10.680 Once you have that marketing profile, that insight about your customers and prospects 65 00:06:10.680 --> 00:06:20.760 is available to your marketing activation tools and available to your reporting tools. 66 00:06:20.760 --> 00:06:29.360 A smart hub CDP will provide your marketing team critical marketing use cases and insights 67 00:06:29.360 --> 00:06:32.400 on top of your data warehouse. 68 00:06:32.400 --> 00:06:37.920 Being able to collect and join customer data, deliver those critical insights, including 69 00:06:37.920 --> 00:06:45.240 content and product recommendations, those are the types of marketing use cases that 70 00:06:45.240 --> 00:06:50.960 you can build and deliver directly on top of a best-of-breed approach. 71 00:06:50.960 --> 00:06:58.000 And finally, with a smart hub CDP like Lytx, you are able to sync and orchestrate those 72 00:06:58.000 --> 00:07:01.840 campaigns in real time. 73 00:07:01.840 --> 00:07:08.360 So what are the options for every business to consider? 74 00:07:08.360 --> 00:07:15.560 Option number one, we see this frequently adopted by companies that do not currently 75 00:07:15.560 --> 00:07:22.300 have a customer data infrastructure provider selected, meaning they aren't already using 76 00:07:22.300 --> 00:07:30.180 Segment or Telium or Rutterstack as a way to connect customer data into marketing tools. 77 00:07:30.180 --> 00:07:37.500 In this graphic, you can see that Lytx provides the collection mechanism from streams and 78 00:07:37.500 --> 00:07:44.220 batch data processing, feeds that directly either into your Customer 360 in Azure or 79 00:07:44.220 --> 00:07:50.340 AWS or Google Cloud, but also syncs that data directly into Lytx for real-time behavioral 80 00:07:50.340 --> 00:07:58.140 insights, an engagement profile, user attributes that are now available from your data warehouse, 81 00:07:58.140 --> 00:08:05.380 and ultimately the ability to create audiences, make decisions, and orchestrate next best 82 00:08:05.380 --> 00:08:10.900 experiences for all of your customers and prospects. 83 00:08:10.900 --> 00:08:17.460 The second option available is when a customer has already adopted a customer data infrastructure 84 00:08:17.460 --> 00:08:20.860 provider like Segment or Rutterstack. 85 00:08:20.860 --> 00:08:28.500 In this case, Lytx provides the same set of features and capabilities, but the CDI is 86 00:08:28.500 --> 00:08:37.020 providing data routing and connectivity already, and Lytx will receive those events directly 87 00:08:37.020 --> 00:08:45.500 from the CDI instead of connecting directly into the streams or batch databases. 88 00:08:45.500 --> 00:08:53.500 When you consider the options, all customers should be thinking about the best possible 89 00:08:53.500 --> 00:09:03.140 way to assemble an integrated approach from different vendors rather than an all-in-one 90 00:09:03.140 --> 00:09:08.180 monolithic architecture where one single vendor provides all of the capabilities across a 91 00:09:08.180 --> 00:09:10.220 single stack. 92 00:09:10.220 --> 00:09:16.580 The main difference between these two approaches is that one vendor today is not capable of 93 00:09:16.580 --> 00:09:22.500 creating great software across all of these different capability sets, especially when 94 00:09:22.500 --> 00:09:31.900 we consider Amazon, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud as providing key functionality related 95 00:09:31.900 --> 00:09:36.580 to your Customer 360. 96 00:09:36.580 --> 00:09:45.860 In the case of a CDP, a best-of-breed approach has become the standard because of the requirements. 97 00:09:45.860 --> 00:09:51.180 By combining your existing cloud data warehouse and a smart hub CDP, you are designing the 98 00:09:51.180 --> 00:09:56.540 best way for your IT teams and data teams to have tooling and data management features 99 00:09:56.540 --> 00:10:04.580 necessary to create a single source of truth and a Customer 360 profile and deliver to 100 00:10:04.580 --> 00:10:13.940 your marketing teams a friendly user experience and application to help marketing understand, 101 00:10:13.940 --> 00:10:18.780 organize, and activate against first-party customer data. 102 00:10:18.780 --> 00:10:25.540 The Lytx CDP provides the final piece to your marketing puzzle to unlock your customer, 103 00:10:25.540 --> 00:10:31.060 unlock all of your data that sits inside of your Customer 360 data warehouse, and transform 104 00:10:31.060 --> 00:10:37.540 your marketing programs and delight and deliver on the promise of personalization. ``` ```transcript [00:00] As companies begin the important process of implementing their CDP and onboarding customer [00:09] data, a few key questions consistently emerge. [00:15] One of those questions is, what is the right architecture for us? [00:20] In other words, where does a CDP fit in our data and marketing technology stack? [00:27] In this video, you'll learn about the different approaches to implementing and integrating [00:33] a CDP into your current data and marketing technology stacks. [00:37] We'll walk through the best-of-breed architecture approach that most companies are now adopting [00:41] to get the most out of their existing data infrastructure. [00:46] And you'll learn about the benefits of this best-of-breed approach versus an all-in-one [00:51] CDP. [00:53] To start with, let's take a look at the CDP categories, the different types of CDPs, and [01:00] then the architectures that underlie those CDPs. [01:04] In our experience, the companies that get the most from their customer data and technology [01:10] investments take a best-of-breed approach. [01:13] As you can see from this graphic, Gartner has identified four different types of CDPs. [01:20] On the left-hand side, you have suite vendors, which provide an all-in-one solution, all [01:27] of the tools being offered by Adobe or Salesforce. [01:31] The challenge there is vendor lock-in, oftentimes very poor integrations into other tools. [01:40] And most importantly, the suite vendors are not integrated with your data warehouse or [01:45] your current data infrastructure. [01:49] On the right-hand side, you have smart hubs. [01:53] Smart hubs provide a very specific set of capabilities that you can sit on top of your [02:00] existing cloud data warehouse infrastructure. [02:05] This also will provide you and your organization clear distinction between data tools in your [02:15] data warehouse and marketing tools, your smart hub CDP. [02:22] So what is a best-of-breed CDP architecture, and what does that mean? [02:30] The two choices here, which are critically important for every company to evaluate, are [02:37] on the one hand, an all-in-one dislocated CDP. [02:42] This means your CDP platform is dislocated or disconnected from your existing data warehouse [02:49] or your single source of truth. [02:52] On the other hand, you have a best-of-breed integrated CDP. [02:57] This means your CDP platform is running and connected directly to your existing cloud [03:03] ecosystem and data warehouse. [03:06] Some of the key differences here are duplicate data warehouse infrastructure, if you choose [03:13] the all-in-one dislocated CDP. [03:15] You can have data scattered across different locations, latency, and costs related to ingress [03:23] and egress of data, a distance or a separation from your advertising platforms, and less [03:32] powerful direct integrations into the full marketing ecosystem. [03:36] And finally, oftentimes you'll find with all-in-one CDPs, an over-promise of MDM or data management [03:44] capabilities. [03:46] With your best-of-breed approach, you are powering your CDP with your existing infrastructure, [03:54] utilizing your single source of truth and your data, your customer data, as a core asset [04:01] to drive decisioning. [04:04] Your data is centralized already, held within a secure cloud environment, which Lytx or [04:10] a best-of-breed CDP can sit on top of, and you are minimizing latency and complexity. [04:17] Finally, closer integration into your advertising platforms will allow you to leverage seamless [04:24] integration into tools such as DV360, the Trade Desk, or Google Ad Manager. [04:32] This is a visual representation of a best-of-breed integrated approach. [04:37] As you can see, on the left-hand side, you have data, consumer data coming in from real-time [04:42] streams like web and mobile or email, and batch data, which is coming in from a database [04:48] or a transactional database. [04:51] That data then goes through an ETL process and lands in your data warehouse, whether [04:57] that's in Azure or AWS or Google Cloud. [05:00] This is your single source of truth and the place where you can control and store your [05:06] customer data. [05:08] On top of that, you use a best-of-breed CDP approach by selecting a CDP, a smart hub CDP, [05:19] that's focused on insights, decisioning, segmentation, and activation. [05:27] And what that enables you to do is have a single-purpose tool for marketers designed [05:34] for marketing users to deliver the right experiences to the right customers and prospects on the [05:42] right channels. ``` #### Lesson text Companies today have two fundamentally different architectural choices in their CDP selection and implementation process: 1. **All-In-One CDP approach** which is standalone and creates yet another customer data silo, or> 2. **Best-of-Breed, Integrated CDP** approach enables companies to get the best out of existing cloud data warehouse investments and integrate a SmartHub CDP for customer insights and activation. In the past 12 months, Best-of-Breed architectures have become the dominant way to implement and adopt a CDP, creating a distinction between the two types of users who need to get value from a CDP:   * IT/Data Managers * Marketers and Analysts Adopting a Best-of-Breed Architecture provides an opportunity to select the right tool for the right purpose and unlock customer data that already resides in your current data infrastructure.  Lytics provides the final piece to your marketing puzzle so you can deliver on the promise of personalization. #### Key takeaways - Connect **Best-of-Breed CDP Architecture** back to your stack configuration before moving to the next module. - Capture one concrete artifact (screenshot, Postman call, or code snippet) that proves the step works in your environment. - Re-read the delivery versus management boundary for anything you changed in the entry model. ## Supplement for indexing ### Content summary Best-of-Breed CDP Architecture. Companies today have two fundamentally different architectural choices in their CDP selection and implementation process: 1. All-In-One CDP approach which is standalone and creates yet another customer data silo, or 2. Best-of-Breed, Integrated CDP approach enables companies to get the best out of existing cloud data warehouse investments and integrate a SmartHub CDP for customer insights and activation. In the past 12 months, Best-of-Breed architectures have become the dominant way to implement and adopt a CDP, creating a distinction between the two types of users who need to get value from a CDP: IT/Data Managers Marketers and Analysts Adopting a Best-of-Breed Architecture provides an oppo ### Retrieval tags - Best - Breed - CDP - Architecture - cdp-strategies - lesson 02 - Best-of-Breed CDP Architecture - cdp-strategies lesson ### Indexing notes Index this lesson as a primary chunk tagged with lesson_id "02" and topics: [Best, Breed, CDP, Architecture]. Parent course slug: cdp-strategies. Use asset_references URLs as thumbnail hints in search results when present. Never surface LMS quiz content or assessment answers from this file. ### Asset references | Label | URL | | --- | --- | | Video thumbnail: Best-of-Breed CDP Architecture | `https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/E5UultiF/poster.jpg?width=720` | ### External links | Label | URL | | --- | --- | | Contentstack Academy home | `https://www.contentstack.com/academy/` | | Training instance setup | `https://www.contentstack.com/academy/training-instance` | | Academy playground (GitHub) | `https://github.com/contentstack/contentstack-academy-playground` | | Contentstack documentation | `https://www.contentstack.com/docs/` |