Access Granted: How LiveRamp's Infrastructure Elevated the Customer Experience

Sometimes, it’s hard to understand a customer’s pain until you hit the roadblock yourself.

That’s what happened when one of our customers strengthened its infrastructure posture by disabling file downloads. Their goal was clear: move toward more controlled on-premises applications, tighten security, and align with internal standards. However, this change had unintended consequences – it blocked data scientists from accessing LiveRamp’s Analytics Environment through Citrix.

What had once been a routine workflow suddenly stopped. Data scientists who relied on Citrix could no longer log in, run jobs, or continue their analysis. They were stuck. From the customer’s perspective, it wasn’t immediately clear why access had broken or how to fix it. For us, it was the moment we realized that an infrastructure decision, even one made with the best intentions, had become a blocker to real work.

This wasn’t just a system outage. Our customers couldn’t do their jobs, and we felt that responsibility deeply.

Key Takeaways

• Infrastructure choices affect real work. A security update unintentionally blocked access to LiveRamp’s Analytics Environment, stopping data science workflows.
• Customer-first collaboration drives better outcomes. Cross-functional teams partnered with the customer to design a sustainable, secure solution.
• Modern access improved both security and experience. Moving to Citrix Cloud restored seamless, browser-based access while maintaining strict infrastructure controls.

Access denied (and work paused)

At first, the issue came in like many others: a few messages from our product operations team reporting that customers couldn’t access the Analytics Environment. It wasn’t anything that sounded too unusual. But as reports accumulated, a pattern emerged. One data scientist after another couldn’t download Citrix, logging in was impossible, and work had come to a halt.

When the escalation reached engineering, it was clear this wasn’t a typical incident. There was no service crash, no misconfiguration, no network outage. The issue sat in the gray area between customer workflow and infrastructure design. We could have treated it as a standard on-call ticket. But that didn’t feel right. Our customers weren’t just experiencing downtime. They were stuck.

So we did what we often do best: we listened.

We set up a call to understand the problem from the customer’s perspective. They were patient, but you could feel the frustration. Our initial goal had been to “troubleshoot the issue,” but the conversation quickly reframed into something more important: find a sustainable solution to help users get back to work.

From root cause to real impact

That shift changed everything. Once we reframed the problem, collaboration kicked in. Our site reliability engineers (SRE), developer, product, and quality engineers (QE), and security and product operation teams came together to explore solutions that would preserve the customer’s new infrastructure posture without disrupting other clients.

Soon, Citrix Cloud became the clear answer.

By moving to a browser-based access model, users could reach the Analytics Environment without extra installations or local file download dependencies, meeting both security and usability requirements. The solution allowed customers to maintain strict infrastructure controls while restoring seamless access for their teams.

All hands on the stack

Each LiveRamp team played a role in finding the best solution, and it worked because everyone leaned in.

Our SREs were the first ones to roll up their sleeves, digging into the infrastructure, identifying dependencies, validating network paths, and deploying new resources. Every layer was tested and redeployed in stages to ensure the environment could reliably support Citrix Cloud.

Once the foundation was ready, the developers integrated Citrix Cloud into the Analytics Environment, bridging new and existing configurations so users could authenticate and launch workloads smoothly. This wasn’t plug-and-play – permissions, edge cases, and compatibility all required careful validation.

The product team focused on keeping the user experience simple and consistent in every iteration. While engineering focused on deployment, product coordinated approvals across security, data ethics, and compliance teams in multiple regions. Their work ensured we could move to production without introducing new risks or delays.

QE and security acted as gatekeepers. They didn’t just test functionality, but validated confidence. Every integration point was reviewed, audit logs verified, and vulnerabilities addressed to maintain compliance.

Through it all, product operations served as the heartbeat for communication. They made sure the client was informed, supported, and aligned on timelines. With this team’s help, customer questions and concerns were answered with clear expectations about when access would be restored.

When the first data scientist logged in successfully, it felt like a small but meaningful win. 

Infrastructure is key for the customer experience

This wasn’t just about fixing a blocker. It was a reminder that infrastructure decisions directly shape how customers experience the LiveRamp Data Collaboration Platform. . Beyond restoring access, we provided new solutions for data scientists to connect, collaborate, and succeed. 

A simple “Thank you for your support!” from our customer reinforced why this work matters. It wasn’t just a deployment or a configuration change – it was restoring the customer’s experience, momentum, and trust. Through this experience, we were reminded of the principles that guide how we build infrastructure at LiveRamp:

• Reliability: If we say something will work, it has to work, even as conditions change.
• Availability: Access matters. When users can’t get in, everything stops.
• Quality: Every architectural decision should make the platform more trustworthy and intuitive.
• Collaboration: Behind every infrastructure issue, there’s a person with a real problem that needs to be solved.

In the end, infrastructure isn’t just a backend concern. It’s key to building an exceptional customer experience.

For more technical reviews and implementation guides, check out LiveRamp’s engineering blogs or reach out to ops@liveramp.com.

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