The modern data stack is shifting fast—and customer data platforms (CDPs) are evolving with it. Today, technical teams must decide how to architect their customer data strategy: go composable or go real-time. The trade-offs are real—but they don’t have to be.
At Tealium, we believe in “composable without the compromise”. That’s why we’re excited about the launch of Tealium CloudStream, our zero-copy CDP capability, built to integrate natively with data clouds like Snowflake, Databricks, AWS, and other data clouds.
Let’s dive into how to choose the right CDP approach for your workloads—and how Tealium now offers the best of all worlds.
What is a Composable Zero-Copy CDP?
A composable CDP lets you run queries and compute-based workloads leveraging your data cloud or lakehouse as the system of record. A zero-copy architecture means the CDP doesn’t ingest or store your data—it queries it live, directly from your cloud and activates it directly into downstream vendors.
This approach is ideal when:
- You’ve centralized your customer data in Snowflake, Databricks, AWS, etc.
- You want to avoid duplicating data across platforms.
- You’re running strategic, historical workloads in your warehouse and want to activate them—think batch audience segmentation, LTV models, next-best action, and churn prediction.
- You want full governance and control inside of a centralized data cloud, especially for highly regulated industries.
Use cases best suited for zero-copy CDPs include:
- Historical campaign pulls
- Long-term batch segmentation
Composable zero-copy CDPs maximize your existing cloud investment by keeping compute and workloads where your data already lives. But that leaves a big gap: realtime!
What About Real-time CDPs?
While zero-copy CDPs shine for batch-oriented intelligence, real-time CDPs are purpose-built for action in the moments that matter. These platforms are optimized for low-latency data collection, enrichment, and activation. This is not just an in-session triggering and activation tool; it’s a complex layer of intelligence and privacy that lives in all channels of engagement. Highly extensible, lightning fast, and always in compliance with local laws.
In real-time environments, you need to:
- Enrich behavioral data as it’s collected and attach to the real-time profile cache
- Understand and respond to visitor intent within milliseconds
- Trigger contextual personalization, recommendations, AI insights, or suppression in the moment
- Activating AI/ML insights from your Data Cloud
- Connect with other ecosystem partners for continuous enrichment
This type of capability simply can’t be powered by periodic zero-copy warehouse queries, and the compute costs to try and get closer to real-time will astronomically increase past positive ROI. That’s where a real-time CDP takes over—and thrives.
Real-time CDPs are ideal for:
- In-session personalization
- Journey orchestration
- Adaptive web or mobile experiences
- Fueling agentic and predictive AI that requires real-time insights
- Identity resolution, as most visitors arrive in an anonymous state
At Tealium, our industry-leading AudienceStream CDP already handles these use cases at global scale and with enterprise-grade security. This requires global data centers, endless scale within the pipeline, and strict adherence to local privacy laws and consent.
Enter CloudStream: Tealium’s Zero-Copy CDP Capability
With the launch of Tealium CloudStream, we’re closing the loop—giving you the ability to go composable without compromising real-time power.
CloudStream enables zero-copy access to cloud data warehouses, allowing teams to:
- Build audiences directly from Snowflake, Databricks, AWS, and others
- Run cross-channel activations using live warehouse data
- Minimize data movement and duplication
- Respect governance, lineage, and security frameworks in your cloud
- Connection to the real time profile cache when required
Now, you can choose the right tool for the job:
| Use Case | Best Fit |
| In-session personalization | Realtime CDP (Tealium AudienceStream) |
| Strategic batch segmentation | Zero-Copy CDP (Tealium CloudStream) |
| Data enrichment at collection time | Realtime CDP (Tealium AudienceStream) |
| AI/ML modeling for activation | Zero-Copy CDP (Tealium CloudStream) |
Why This Matters (And Trust Me, It Does)
Customer data is no longer one-size-fits-all. Teams want the agility of composability, the power of warehouse-native workloads, and the speed of edge-based decisioning and the real-time profile cache. That’s a tall ask and one that the market is demanding. Moreover, managing compute costs is top of mind, and as such, there are workloads ideal for zero-copy and real-time, respectively.
With Tealium’s dual capabilities—real-time CDP + zero copy composable CDP—you don’t have to choose. You get it all:
- Warehouse-native control and activation
- Real-time behavioral intelligence and triggered engagement
- Unified audience management across data cloud and real-time CX
- Real-time streaming intelligent pipelines to fuel warehouse native workloads
Composable without the compromise, that’s what you get when you choose Tealium. Ready to activate your customer data strategy across real-time and zero-copy architectures? Let’s talk!
