eBay – Dataconomy https://dataconomy.ru Bridging the gap between technology and business Wed, 24 Jan 2024 08:48:40 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://dataconomy.ru/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/cropped-DC-logo-emblem_multicolor-32x32.png eBay – Dataconomy https://dataconomy.ru 32 32 eBay layoffs 2024 hit 1000 people, roughly 9% of the workforce https://dataconomy.ru/2024/01/24/ebay-layoffs-2024-1000-people/ Wed, 24 Jan 2024 08:48:40 +0000 https://dataconomy.ru/?p=47512 The eBay layoffs 2024 news has hit the headlines after the company officials cut roughly 9% of their workforce, affecting 1000 employees. Many companies are laying off their workforce nowadays and eBay has joined the list too. The eBay layoffs 2024 decision to downsize comes at a time when eBay, despite facing stiff competition from […]]]>

The eBay layoffs 2024 news has hit the headlines after the company officials cut roughly 9% of their workforce, affecting 1000 employees. Many companies are laying off their workforce nowadays and eBay has joined the list too.

The eBay layoffs 2024 decision to downsize comes at a time when eBay, despite facing stiff competition from other e-commerce giants like Amazon, has managed to maintain a strong financial foothold in the market. Founded in 1995, eBay has been a household name for nearly three decades, evolving and adapting through various phases of the digital era.

However, the recent announcement reflects a strategic shift within the company, focusing on streamlining operations and enhancing efficiency to stay competitive. As the tech industry undergoes a wave of changes, eBay’s move is seen as a step towards repositioning itself for future challenges and opportunities.

ebay layoffs 2024
The eBay layoffs 2024 decision to affect 1000 employees in the company (Image Credit)

eBay layoffs 2024 to affect 1000 people

eBay, the renowned online marketplace, is set to lay off about 1000 of its employees. This significant cut represents nearly 9% of the company’s full-time workforce. eBay’s CEO, Jamie Iannone, announced the eBay layoffs 2024 decision through a blog post on Tuesday, signaling a major shift in the company’s operational strategy.

Riot Games layoff wave will hit 530 people

The CEO explained that the current size of eBay’s workforce and the associated expenses have grown disproportionately compared to the company’s business growth. This imbalance has led to the difficult decision of reducing the number of employees. Alongside the layoffs, eBay is also reducing its reliance on outside contractors, a move aimed at streamlining operations and enhancing efficiency.

The announcement comes as a notable development for eBay, a company that has been a major player in the e-commerce space since its inception in 1995. Despite intense competition from giants like Amazon, eBay has remained relevant and financially robust. However, the recent decision indicates a strategic shift to adapt to the challenging economic landscape and maintain its competitive edge.

ebay layoffs 2024
The eBay layoffs 2024 news surprised everyone after a successful quarter by the company (Image Credit)

eBay reported a $1.3B profit last quarter

Despite the challenging circumstances leading to the layoffs, eBay reported a substantial profit of $1.3 billion in the last quarter, says The Verge. This figure, described by the company as a result of “solid results,” contrasts with the decision to reduce the workforce. CEO Jamie Iannone sees the layoffs as necessary for the company to become more agile and responsive to market demands.

In his communication, Iannone emphasized the need for eBay to evolve into a more nimble entity. This evolution is crucial for making quicker decisions and positioning the company for sustainable, long-term growth. The contrast between the profitable quarter and the need for a workforce reduction highlights the tech industry’s dynamic and often unpredictable nature.

Amazon layoffs 2024 continue, this time Buy with Prime unit

The broader context of these layoffs aligns with a trend observed across the tech sector. In 2024 alone, other tech giants like Google and Amazon have also made significant workforce reductions. The industry is experiencing a period of recalibration as companies strive to adapt to the rapidly evolving technological landscape and external economic pressures.

In conclusion, despite a profitable quarter, the eBay layoffs 2024 decision reflects the broader challenges faced by the tech industry. The move is part of the company’s strategy to stay agile and competitive in a demanding market. As eBay navigates this transition, the focus remains on aligning its operations with the evolving needs of its global customer base.

Featured image credit: Oberon Copeland /Unsplash

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eBay not working but there is a fix https://dataconomy.ru/2023/06/14/ebay-not-working-how-to-fix-alternatives/ Wed, 14 Jun 2023 13:58:16 +0000 https://dataconomy.ru/?p=37049 With this article, you can learn how to fix eBay not working issues. In the fast-paced world of online shopping, eBay has emerged as a household name, connecting millions of buyers and sellers worldwide. With its vast array of products and convenient user interface, eBay has revolutionized the way we shop online. However, like any […]]]>

With this article, you can learn how to fix eBay not working issues. In the fast-paced world of online shopping, eBay has emerged as a household name, connecting millions of buyers and sellers worldwide. With its vast array of products and convenient user interface, eBay has revolutionized the way we shop online. However, like any other platform, it is not immune to technical glitches and occasional malfunctions that can hinder your buying or selling experience.

If you’ve ever encountered issues with eBay not working as expected, you’re not alone. From eBay search not working issue, slow loading times to error messages and broken links, these hiccups can be frustrating and disrupt your online endeavors. Fortunately, in this comprehensive guide, we’ll walk you through the most common eBay issues and provide practical solutions to help you troubleshoot and fix them quickly.

Learn how to fix eBay not working issues and get a smooth shopping experience. If the solutions don't work, check out the best ebay alternatives
eBay not working today; keep reading and learn what to do (Image credit)

Whether you’re a seasoned eBay user or a newcomer eager to explore its vast marketplace, understanding how to overcome these obstacles will ensure a smoother and more enjoyable experience. So, without further ado, let’s dive into the world of eBay troubleshooting and learn how to overcome the most common technical challenges.

How to fix eBay not working issues

eBay is a popular online marketplace where people can buy and sell goods. However, sometimes eBay can experience technical issues that prevent users from accessing the site or completing transactions. If you’re having trouble with eBay, here are a few things you can do to try to fix the issue:

  • Check your internet connection: The most common cause of eBay not working is a problem with your internet connection. Make sure you’re connected to the internet and that your signal is strong. You can also try restarting your modem or router.
  • Clear your browser’s cache and cookies: Sometimes, old cache and cookies can cause problems with websites. To clear your browser’s cache and cookies, follow these steps:
    • In your browser, open the Settings menu.
    • Click on Privacy & Security.
    • Under Cookies and Site Data, click on Clear browsing data.
    • Select the Cookies and other site data and Cached images and files options, and then click on Clear data.
  • Try a different browser: If you’re still having trouble, try using a different browser. Some browsers work better with eBay than others.
  • Update your browser: If you’re using an older version of your browser, it may not be compatible with eBay. Update your browser to the latest version and try again.
  • Contact eBay support: If you’ve tried all of the above and you’re still having trouble, contact eBay support for help. You can reach eBay support by phone, email, or chat.
Learn how to fix eBay not working issues and get a smooth shopping experience. If the solutions don't work, check out the best ebay alternatives
If eBay not working, there are more options to fix it (Image credit)

Additional suggestions for preventing eBay errors are as follows:

  • Keep your software up to date: eBay regularly releases updates for its software, including its website and mobile apps. These updates often include bug fixes and security patches, which can help to prevent problems.
  • Use a secure internet connection: When you’re using eBay, it’s important to use a secure internet connection. This means using a Wi-Fi network that you trust or using a wired connection.
  • Be careful what you click on: eBay is a popular target for scammers. Be careful what links you click on, and don’t enter your personal information on any website that you don’t trust.

By following these tips, you can help to avoid eBay not working issues and keep your eBay experience running smoothly.

Best eBay alternatives to look for while it’s not working

While eBay is down, here are some popular options you may use in the meantime:

  • Amazon: Amazon is the largest online retailer in the world. It offers a wide variety of products for sale, including new and used items. Amazon also offers a number of features that make it a good alternative to eBay, such as free shipping on many items and a 100% satisfaction guarantee.
  • Facebook Marketplace: Facebook Marketplace is a free online marketplace that allows users to buy and sell goods within their local community. It is a good option for people who want to sell items quickly and easily or who are looking for a specific item that is only available locally.
  • Craigslist: Craigslist is a free online classifieds website that allows users to post ads for goods and services. It is a good option for people who want to sell items that are not in high demand or who are looking for a specific item that is only available in a certain area.
  • Bonanza: Bonanza is an online marketplace that allows users to sell goods for a fixed price. It is a good option for people who want to sell items that are in high demand or who are looking for a platform with lower fees than eBay.
  • Etsy: Etsy is an online marketplace for handmade and vintage goods. It is a good option for people who sell handmade or vintage items or who are looking for unique and hard-to-find items.
Learn how to fix eBay not working issues and get a smooth shopping experience. If the solutions don't work, check out the best ebay alternatives
If eBay not working, there are alternatives to try right now (Image credit)

You should think about what you need and want before settling on a replacement for eBay. Amazon is a wonderful alternative if you want a wide variety of things to choose from. Facebook Marketplace and Craigslist may be better options if you want to sell stuff fast and simply. Bonanza might be an excellent choice if you’re trying to find a platform with cheap transaction costs. Etsy is a great option for selling one-of-a-kind items, whether they are handmade or vintage.

If you’re looking for an eBay substitute, you should also think about the following:

  • Fees: Some online marketplaces charge fees for listing and selling items. It is important to compare the fees charged by different marketplaces before choosing one.
  • Shipping: Some online marketplaces offer free shipping on certain items. Others charge a shipping fee for all items. It is important to factor in the shipping costs when comparing different marketplaces.
  • Customer service: Some online marketplaces offer better customer service than others. If you are a seller, it is important to choose a marketplace with good customer service in case you have any problems with a sale.
  • Security: Some online marketplaces are more secure than others. It is important to choose a marketplace that has a good reputation for security.

By considering your needs and preferences, you can choose an eBay alternative that is right for you.

Here are our other troubleshooting guides; feel free to use them if you need them:

Featured image credit: Pexels

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Alation Unveil Their “Google for Data” from Stealth Mode https://dataconomy.ru/2015/04/07/alation-unveil-their-google-for-data-from-stealth-mode/ https://dataconomy.ru/2015/04/07/alation-unveil-their-google-for-data-from-stealth-mode/#respond Tue, 07 Apr 2015 13:39:36 +0000 https://dataconomy.ru/?p=12560 Alation, a California based data accessibility startup emerged from stealth mode last week to make available its enterprise data accessibility platform that promises to bring together machine learning and “human insight” to assist the data-driven organisation’s workforce in collaborative analytics, data search and discovery, data optimization and effective data governance. “Our customers have just given […]]]>

Alation, a California based data accessibility startup emerged from stealth mode last week to make available its enterprise data accessibility platform that promises to bring together machine learning and “human insight” to assist the data-driven organisation’s workforce in collaborative analytics, data search and discovery, data optimization and effective data governance.

“Our customers have just given up on trying to build that one system that contains all of the answers,” explains Satyen Sangani, co-founder and CEO of Alation. “The data is changing too fast, there are just too few analysts, and the business’ appetite for information is insatiable.”

“Alation is a system that tells the fastest way to get the right answer, whether it’s finding the right database, learning about best practice methods, appropriately modifying a query or asking an expert,” he added.

“What Google did for people, we’re going to do for data around the enterprise,” he notes.

Data outfits are faced with “data complexity and data sprawl” in analytical and OLTP systems, and so far, attempts to consolidate such troves have been found wanting, even with the advent of data management platforms such as Hadoop, business intelligence and analytics tools, enterprises and government still need to hire teams of consultants, data scientists and business analysts to get timely insights about the business, explains Alation.

Founded by a team hailing from backgrounds such as Oracle, Apple and AppNexus, the startup’s offering centralizes an organisation’s data silos, “automatically capturing information on what the data describes, where the data comes from, who’s using it and how it’s used,” allowing for a healthy nexus between analysts, stewards, data consumers and IT by “enabling them to share knowledge, exchange ideas and quickly find the answers they need.”

Alation’s offering claims to have been designed from the “ground up for simplification and automation,” is delivering solutions in four core areas:

  • Collaborative Analytics – Alation improves analyst productivity, delivers faster time-to-insight and lowers the cost of hiring and retaining analysts.
  • Data Search and Discovery – Alation’s unified search means analysts, data scientists, stewards, and data consumers can find the information they need, faster.
  • Data Optimization – Alation helps organizations realize infrastructure cost savings and a more efficient data infrastructure.
  • Effective Data Governance – Alation empowers data governance initiatives resulting in lower costs of compliance, lower operational risk, increased productivity for stewards and cost savings by automating the key areas of the governance process.

Alation is being used in production by customers like eBay, MarketShare, Invoice2Go and Inflection among other finance and retail firms.

Reduction in analyst on-boarding from years to months, ad hoc queries written in less than half the time and significant cost savings based on the identification of redundant data warehouse objects and reduced cost of governing data are some of the advantages being reported by customers.

“By using Alation, our analysts are realizing 50 percent or more in time savings for composing, sharing and learning queries,” notes Satya Ramachandran, SVP of Engineering and Managing Director, MarketShare. “What’s especially valuable is that Alation permits easy data exploration and helps us create ‘data stories’ for MarketShare clients,” he explains.

The Redwood City startup has garnered funding from Andreessen Horowitz, Bloomberg Beta, Costanoa Venture Capital, Data Collective and General Catalyst Partners.

Image credit: Alation

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eBay Open Sources Pulsar to Analyse User Data in Real Time https://dataconomy.ru/2015/02/26/ebay-open-sources-pulsar-to-analyse-user-data-in-real-time/ https://dataconomy.ru/2015/02/26/ebay-open-sources-pulsar-to-analyse-user-data-in-real-time/#comments Thu, 26 Feb 2015 11:39:29 +0000 https://dataconomy.ru/?p=12170 E-commerce giant eBay has released an open-source, real-time analytics platform and stream processing framework, dubbed Pulsar. Through Pulsar, user and business events will be collected and processed in real time, enabling superior interaction, to the tune of a million events per second with high availability. Owing to the ever increasing buyer and seller traffic eBay […]]]>

E-commerce giant eBay has released an open-source, real-time analytics platform and stream processing framework, dubbed Pulsar. Through Pulsar, user and business events will be collected and processed in real time, enabling superior interaction, to the tune of a million events per second with high availability.

Owing to the ever increasing buyer and seller traffic eBay faces, newer use cases are generated that need collection and processing in real-time. So far, user experience optimization and behaviour analysis was carried out using batch-oriented data platforms like Hadoop.

To enable better interaction, “derive actionable insights and generate signals for immediate action”  eBay decided to develop their own distributed CEP framework. Pulsar CEP provides a Java-based framework as well as tooling to build, deploy, and manage CEP applications in a cloud environment, explains the blog post making the announcement.

The post points out that Pulsar CEP includes the following capabilities:

  • Declarative definition of processing logic in SQL
  • Hot deployment of SQL without restarting applications
  • Annotation plugin framework to extend SQL functionality
  • Pipeline flow routing using SQL
  • Dynamic creation of stream affinity using SQL
  • Declarative pipeline stitching using Spring IOC, thereby enabling dynamic topology changes at runtime
  • Clustering with elastic scaling
  • Cloud deployment
  • Publish-subscribe messaging with both push and pull models
  • Additional CEP capabilities through Esper integration

Built within Pulsar is a real-time analytics data pipeline that provides higher reliability and scalability through processes. such as data enrichment, filtering and mutation,aggregation and stateful processing.

The now open-sourced Pulsar has been deployed in production at eBay and is processing all user behavior events, the post says. A dashboard is under development which will make integration with metrics stores like Cassandra and Druid, easier.


(Image credit: Justin Sullivan, Getty Images)

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PayPal and eBay Initiate First round of Layoffs https://dataconomy.ru/2015/02/04/paypal-ebay-initiate-first-round-layoffs/ https://dataconomy.ru/2015/02/04/paypal-ebay-initiate-first-round-layoffs/#respond Wed, 04 Feb 2015 13:51:37 +0000 http://ftjournal.com/?p=614 Following the eBay, PayPal division, the first round of layoffs has begun. They had announced a 7 percent cut in workforce last month spreading across various departments. John Donahoe president and CEO of ebay Inc had said, “We plan to reduce our workforce globally by approximately 2,400 positions, across eBay Marketplaces, PayPal, and eBay Enterprise.”

The official notices were released this Monday, multiple sources told Re/Code. The layoffs mostly comprised of sales and product division employees, especially in the category of PayPal for small businesses as well as restaurants.

Paypal’s in-store initiatives, including mobile payments and credit card reader paypal here were also reportedly the first to be laid off. Beacon, another product which didn’t pan off even after 2 years of released also saw layoffs in the first round.

EBay shares were up 2.6 percent at $54.75 in after hours trade as per their reports. The reported fourth-quarter earnings were slightly over Wall Street expectations, but its outlook for the 2015 first quarter and full year fell short of estimates. For the 2015 first quarter, eBay forecast earnings between 68 cents and 71 cents a share, below analysts’ estimates of 76 cents per share. Its revenue forecast of $4.35 billion to $4.45 billion fell short of the average Wall Street forecast of a little over $4.7 billion.

In an effort to streamline its portfolio and cost structure, paypal seems to be shifting its focus back to core- web and in-app payments. Sources indicate that PayPal’s Braintree unit, which houses the red-hot Venmo peer-to-peer payments app, is not affected by the cuts. Ebay’s Marketplace and Enterprise division aren’t facing the heat either, reports suggested.

The layoffs are under CEO designee Dan Schulman’s directive. EBay CEO John Donahoe told Re/Code that the layoffs were being decided by the heads of eBay’s three businesses: eBay Marketplaces, eBay Enterprise and PayPal.

(image credit: Ian Sane)

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Employees to Be Laid off Ahead of eBay and PayPal Split https://dataconomy.ru/2015/01/23/employees-to-be-laid-off-ahead-of-ebay-and-paypal-split/ https://dataconomy.ru/2015/01/23/employees-to-be-laid-off-ahead-of-ebay-and-paypal-split/#respond Fri, 23 Jan 2015 17:07:21 +0000 http://217.199.187.69/ftjournal.com/?p=164 eBay, one of the largest e-commerce companies has announced a spinoff from its payments service PayPal. Ahead of this move they plan to cut about 7 percent of its staff spreading across various departments. John Donahoe president and CEO of ebay Inc said, “We plan to reduce our workforce globally by approximately 2,400 positions, which represents about seven percent of our global workforce, across eBay Marketplaces, PayPal, and eBay Enterprise. This was a difficult decision. Eliminating jobs is never easy. But it is necessary to reduce complexity and create more competitive cost structures.” Restructuring and separation costs are expected to be between $210 million and $240 million in the first quarter and $350 million to $400 million for the entire year.

Justifying the split John said “We will be exploring strategic options for eBay Enterprise including a sale or IPO. Enterprise is a good business but it has become clear that it has increasingly divergent opportunities and limited synergies with eBay. This move will help both businesses focus on their respective priorities moving forward.”

In the Q4 report PayPal’s revenue rose 18 percent to $2.16 billion whereas eBay’s marketplace unit increased just 1 percent to $2.33 billion. The split is planned for the second half of the year

eBay Inc also announced an agreement with activist investor who holds 3.7-percent stake in the company; Carl Icahn, that will give investors a greater say in its PayPal payments unit once after the separation and said it exploring a sale or public offering of its enterprise unit. This could indicate laying groundwork for future acquisitions of eBay and Paypal by emerging e-commerce and payment markets like Alibaba and Google. (reuters)

eBay shares were up 2.6 percent at $54.75 in after hours trade. The reported fourth-quarter earnings were slightly over Wall Street expectations, but its outlook for the 2015 first quarter and full year fell short of estimates. For the 2015 first quarter, eBay forecast earnings between 68 cents and 71 cents a share, below analysts’ estimates of 76 cents per share. Its revenue forecast of $4.35 billion to $4.45 billion fell short of the average Wall Street forecast of a little over $4.7 billion.

This week also saw the addition of 2 new board members- seasoned Wall Street executives Perry Traquina and Frank Yeary. NBC Universal executive Bonnie Hammer also joined the board earlier this month.

John stated, “As we look to 2015, we are taking decisive actions to address both the opportunities we see and the challenges we face. To that end, we’re streamlining our cost structure and portfolio as we set up eBay and PayPal to succeed as independent, public companies.” And signed off on a positive note, “Looking ahead, we are clear on what we need to do at eBay and PayPal to deliver on our 2015 plans.  I strongly believe that separation is the right path for our company, and we remain deeply committed to doing what’s best for our business, shareholders and customers.” (source: eBay)

 

(image credit: Kārlis Dambrāns)

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Operational Intelligence: The Next-Generation of Business Intelligence https://dataconomy.ru/2014/12/04/operational-intelligence-the-next-generation-of-business-intelligence/ https://dataconomy.ru/2014/12/04/operational-intelligence-the-next-generation-of-business-intelligence/#comments Thu, 04 Dec 2014 12:18:47 +0000 https://dataconomy.ru/?p=10806 For years, companies have relied on business intelligence (BI) tools to drive strategy and identify opportunities based on historical data. However, in today’s fast-paced, data-driven economy, traditional BI often moves too slowly. Now, with the emergence of the Internet of Things and the demand for greater customer personalization, companies are increasingly striving to quickly make […]]]>

For years, companies have relied on business intelligence (BI) tools to drive strategy and identify opportunities based on historical data. However, in today’s fast-paced, data-driven economy, traditional BI often moves too slowly. Now, with the emergence of the Internet of Things and the demand for greater customer personalization, companies are increasingly striving to quickly make sense of their data as it changes. Operational intelligence – the ability to analyze live, fast-changing data and provide immediate feedback – takes business intelligence to the next level and creates amazing new opportunities.

Using in-memory computing technology allows live, fast-changing data to be stored, updated and analyzed continuously. Ever changing data streams enriched with historical data and then analyzed in parallel provide powerful feedback on the fly. The benefits of operational intelligence are far-reaching and applicable to a wide range of industries, Tincluding manufacturing, cable, and retail.

Operational vs. Business Intelligence

With recent advancements in computing technology, operational intelligence has finally become a reality. While business intelligence provides insights for static datasets, usually identifying long-term trends based on historical data, operational intelligence targets short-lived business opportunities, offering timely, actionable insights. Operational intelligence tracks the behavior of live systems, integrating streaming data with customer preferences and historical information to create a comprehensive view and generate immediate feedback.

Operational intelligence is often confused with “real-time analytics,” which refers to fast, interactive analysis of static data (typically, huge, historical datasets) instead of live data. Accelerating the analysis of static data helps make business intelligence more interactive as it examines important data patterns and long-term trends. However, this still leaves a critical gap between the identification of a pattern and the use of live intelligence to capture business opportunities in the moment. Operational intelligence fills this gap.

Once implementation challenges have been met, operational intelligence creates exciting opportunities for enhancing the behavior of live systems in diverse industries. Here are a few examples.

Manufacturing

In the last few years, factories and plants around the world have added the technology needed to implement operational intelligence. For example, arrays of machines on the factory floor and computing systems within data centers now are able to gather vital, real-time data from sensors and make it available for immediate analysis.

With the use of operational intelligence, analytics systems can continuously compare streams of live data with historical models to monitor performance, identify early indicators of problems, and prevent costly failure scenarios.

Imagine an automotive manufacturing factory that uses hundreds “smart” machines. These machines incorporate tools and sensors that are connected with the company’s network and databases. This provides manufacturing supervisors access to live data, allowing them to use operational intelligence to improve processes and more efficiently achieve operational goals.

For example, operational intelligence can analyze telemetry in real time and thereby anticipate or avoid machine failures. Preventing or detecting machine failures represents a huge area of potential cost savings for manufacturers. The consequential loss that comes with failures quickly builds up, due not only the cost of repair but wasted equipment downtime and a range of inefficiencies that reverberate throughout the business. Rather than solely relying on routine inspections and component replacements, operational intelligence’s analysis of live data cross-referenced with historical data provides greater transparency into the state of equipment health.

Cable Providers

Although the explosion of Netflix, HBO GO and other online entertainment options has given viewers more content options than ever before, this abundance of choices makes decision-making daunting for many viewers.

Using operational intelligence, cable providers can track their customers’ program selections, combine this information with historical data and preferences, and make intelligent recommendations in the moment – while the viewer is active. This allows providers to up-sell with appropriate personalized offers. For example, cable providers can alert viewers to upcoming movies and shows that fit their personal preferences. Operational intelligence also enables cable providers to track network behavior, such as bandwidth consumption, and make immediate adjustments that meet the individual needs of each viewer.

Brick and Mortar Retailers

Based on their knowledge of consumer’s shopping habits and previous browsing history, ecommerce retailers like Amazon and eBay are able to make personalized offers and display ads, giving them a huge advantage over brick-and-mortar retailers. The combination of convenience and personalization has seen ecommerce cut into the market share of traditional retailers. The trend looks to continue this holiday shopping season with ecommerce expected to grow 16.6 percent.

Advances in in-memory computing technology, however, may be turning the tide. By combining operational intelligence with recent advancements in mobile technology, in-store retailers now have the tools they need to compete with ecommerce and create a compelling shopping experience. For example, opt-in customers can share their in-store locations with the retailer, which can combine this information with demographics, brand preferences, shopping history, and current offers to assist sales associates in making personalized recommendations that match the customer’s immediate needs.

Moreover, brick-and-mortar stores now are adopting the use of radio frequency identification (RFID) tags to identity every item of merchandise in a store and using the information as part of their operational intelligence. Similar to bar codes, RFID tags identify inventory with high efficiency, enabling stores to track which items customers are examining. This allows sales associates to keep the correct sizes at hand and suggest complementary products. It also reduces the stock that needs to be kept on hand to lower inventory costs.

In-Memory Technology Enables Operational Intelligence

Recent advancements in in-memory computing technology have paved the way for operational intelligence. In-memory computing eliminates the bottlenecks inherent in the techniques used for business intelligence. For example, it avoids the overheads of disk-based data storage and batch scheduling, enabling the immediate, efficient tracking and analysis of live data. Unlike pure streaming and event-processing systems, operational intelligence uses in-memory computing to maintain a comprehensive picture of customer activity, leading to a deeper understanding of behavior, preferences, and customer needs. Moreover, operational intelligence incorporates techniques that ensure uninterrupted processing vital to live, mission-critical environments.

With operational intelligence, companies now are able to analyze the fast-changing data they manage within operational systems, enriching it with historical information and analyzing it for patterns and trends that require immediate action. While business intelligence provide strategic guidance from the data warehouse, operational intelligence acts on the front lines, helping to add value and enhance competitiveness on a second-by-second basis.



William-Bain-187x300Dr. William L. Bain:- Bill has a Ph.D. (1978) in electrical engineering/parallel computing from Rice University, and he has worked at Bell Labs research, Intel, and Microsoft. He founded ScaleOut Software in 2003. Prior to ScaleOut, Bill founded and ran three start-up companies prior to joining Microsoft. In the most recent company (Valence Research), he developed a distributed Web load-balancing software solution that was acquired by Microsoft and is now called Network Load Balancing within the Windows Server operating system. Dr. Bain holds several patents in computer architecture and distributed computing. As a member of the screening committee for the Seattle-based Alliance of Angels, Dr. Bain is actively involved in entrepreneurship and the angel community.


 

(Featured image credit: David Erickson)

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EBay Brings Out Open-Sourced Kylin, Built from Scratch, Which Taps Distributed Processing and the HBase Data Store to Accelerate Analytics https://dataconomy.ru/2014/10/24/ebay-brings-out-open-sourced-kyelin-built-from-scratch-which-taps-distributed-processing-and-the-hbase-data-store-to-accelerate-analytics/ https://dataconomy.ru/2014/10/24/ebay-brings-out-open-sourced-kyelin-built-from-scratch-which-taps-distributed-processing-and-the-hbase-data-store-to-accelerate-analytics/#respond Fri, 24 Oct 2014 11:55:50 +0000 https://dataconomy.ru/?p=10023 Ebay’s latest offering to the open-source community is designed to accelerate analytics on Hadoop and allow the use of SQL-compatible tools, while providing an SQL interface and multi-dimensional analysis (OLAP) on Hadoop to support extremely large datasets. Dubbed, Kylin, according to an eBay blog post, this is what it essentially helps with: “When data becomes […]]]>

Ebay’s latest offering to the open-source community is designed to accelerate analytics on Hadoop and allow the use of SQL-compatible tools, while providing an SQL interface and multi-dimensional analysis (OLAP) on Hadoop to support extremely large datasets.

Dubbed, Kylin, according to an eBay blog post, this is what it essentially helps with:

“When data becomes bigger, the pre-calculation processing becomes impossible – even with powerful hardware. However, with the benefit of Hadoop’s distributed computing power, calculation jobs can leverage hundreds of thousands of nodes. This allows Kylin to perform these calculations in parallel and merge the final result, thereby significantly reducing the processing time.”

It is currently used in production by various business units at eBay. “Our largest use case is the analysis of 12+ billion source records generating 14+ TB cubes. Its 90% query latency is less than 5 seconds. Now, our use cases target analysts and business users, who can access analytics and get results through the Tableau dashboard very easily – no more Hive query, shell command, and so on,” the blog explains.

Ebay has also proposed Kylin as an Apache Incubator project.

The Platform offers the following features for big data analytics:

  • Extremely fast OLAP engine at scale: Kylin is designed to reduce query latency on Hadoop for 10+ billion rows of data.
  • ANSI SQL on Hadoop: Kylin supports most ANSI SQL query functions in its ANSI SQL on Hadoop interface.
  • Interactive query capability: Users can interact with Hadoop data via Kylin at sub-second latency – better than Hive queries for the same dataset.
  • MOLAP cube query serving on billions of rows: Users can define a data model and pre-build in Kylin with more than 10+ billions of raw data records.
  • Seamless integration with BI Tools: Kylin currently offers integration with business intelligence tools such as Tableau and third-party applications.
  • Open-source ODBC driver: Kylin’s ODBC driver is built from scratch and works very well with Tableau. We have open-sourced the driver to the community as well.

Derric Harris of GigaOm wonders how Kylin would fare against “the next-generation versions of Hive, Spark SQL and other options for SQL analysis in Hadoop that have emerged as a result of the YARN resource manager available in the latest versions of Apache Hadoop.” He believes that it might be slower but more scalable than in-memory option while being another option for Hadoop users who are running earlier versions of the software.

Other technologies over the past 30 years have have leveraged the same theory on which Kylin is based to accelerate analytics including methods to ‘store pre-calculated results to serve analysis queries, generate each level’s cuboids (referencing cuboid typology) with all possible combinations of dimensions, and calculate all metrics at different levels.’

Read more here.

(Image credit: Flickr)

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Data Enrichment Startup CrowdFlower Secures $12.5m in Series C Funding https://dataconomy.ru/2014/09/19/data-enrichment-startup-crowdflower-secures-12-5m-in-series-c-funding/ https://dataconomy.ru/2014/09/19/data-enrichment-startup-crowdflower-secures-12-5m-in-series-c-funding/#respond Fri, 19 Sep 2014 05:51:56 +0000 https://dataconomy.ru/?p=9307 Crowdfunded data enrichment platform CrowdFlower, scooped up $12.5 million in Series C financing earlier this week. The round was led by Canvas Venture Fund and saw participation from existing investors Bessemer Venture Partners and Trinity Ventures, bringing the total amount raised by the company to $28 million. Rebecca Lynn, the General Partner of Canvas explains […]]]>

Crowdfunded data enrichment platform CrowdFlower, scooped up $12.5 million in Series C financing earlier this week. The round was led by Canvas Venture Fund and saw participation from existing investors Bessemer Venture Partners and Trinity Ventures, bringing the total amount raised by the company to $28 million.

Rebecca Lynn, the General Partner of Canvas explains their investment, “Having worked at P&G where every product and brand strategy is based on exhaustive analysis of data, I naturally gravitated to CrowdFlower’s vision to help companies realize the real potential of Big Data.”

“CrowdFlower’s platform takes the pain out of managing an on-demand workforce to deliver accurate and fast results so that organizations can base their important business decisions on data they can trust,” she added.

Founded in 2009, CrowdFlower essentially assists data scientists through its data enrichment platform. CrowdFlower’s five million on-demand contributors assist by helping enterprises in maintenance, organisation and cleaning up of the data, delivering up to “seven years of work in a single day”.

Their clientele includes the likes of eBay, Edelman, EventBrite, The Home Depot, VMWare and Venuelabs, to name a few, which utilize CrowdFlower to address a spectrum of projects like search relevance tuning, data categorization, image annotation, content moderation, sentiment analysis, metadata creation and real-time transcription.

The financing will help with the fierce growth the company is faced with. A separate statement on the same day CrowdFlower revealed its intention to free data scientists from cleaning incomplete, messy data. More information can be found here.

Read more here

(Image Credit: Nick Ares)

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