How Sumo Logic Avoided a Live Event Disaster

In 2021, machine data analytics company Sumo Logic learned what it meant to have a video partner rather than just a vendor when the going got tough.

Founded in 2010, Sumo Logic securely logs app activity for its clients, focusing on security, operations, and business intelligence. By keeping logs of this activity in the cloud, Sumo Logic is able to offer up-to-the-minute insights without eating up a ton of disk space.

Four days before its 2021 Illuminate end-user training event, Sumo Logic noticed something very wrong. While testing its video platform ahead of the event, executives noticed persistent playback issues that couldn’t be resolved.

This was a problem. Illuminate was to be held virtually with a quick turnaround. There would be training held live on Zoom on a Tuesday, and the event itself would take place on Wednesday, broadcasting a full day of pre-recorded sessions. The sessions would be available to stream on Thursday. If the event was going to go forward, Sumo needed a fix, fast.

Sumo Logic contacted the vendor, who said everything was working on their end. But after spending the next two days claiming the problem wasn’t with them and trying different workarounds—including a new server—the vendor finally admitted their player was broken.

Sumo Logic started searching for an alternative. On Tuesday morning, as the Zoom sessions were being held, they reached out to Brightcove. Brightcove set them up with its Australia-based support team, which would test the playback throughout the night, U.S. time, to ensure no issues came up.

The U.S. team tested until the wee hours of Wednesday morning and couldn’t find a single issue. Later that morning, the day of pre-recorded sessions went live without a blip or a buffer.

“It was then where I had to sit and pause and say what the difference was between a vendor and a partner. We needed a vendor who could do more than say, ‘Here’s our solution. This is all we have.’ We needed a vendor who was going to partner with us and provide us not only a solution, but provide us the know-how and the bandwidth to get us through for a positive outcome. That’s where Brightcove became our partner, and not just a vendor” (Annie Yuzzie, VP of Corporate Events for Sumo Logic).