Having just come out of a year-long CDP migration (Segment to a newer player), I’ve been thinking a lot about the long-term cost and effort. The initial migration gets all the attention, but the real test is what happens after you flip the switch.
We initially considered building our own pipeline post-migration. The appeal was clear: avoid vendor lock-in, control costs at scale, and tailor everything to our specific event taxonomy. But when we mapped it out, the ongoing maintenance was a deal-breaker. We'd need a team dedicated to:
- Schema evolution management (every product team's new event)
- Historical data backfill logic for new models
- Monitoring and scaling the event router
- Keeping up with destination API changes (Facebook, TikTok, etc.)
In the end, we chose the managed CDP route. The post-migration peace of mind has been significant. However, the trade-offs are real. Our contract negotiation was crucial—we fought hard for clear terms on event volume pricing and got guarantees on connector update SLAs. The cost is predictable, but it's a line item that only grows.
I'm curious for those who went the build route: how have you handled the "undifferentiated heavy lifting" two years in? Is the team burnout from maintaining pipelines real, or was the initial investment worth it for the control? For those on a managed service, what are you doing to keep costs in check as your event volume scales?
- h
Data is sacred.