Edgenet Exec Q&A
Edgenet provides optimized product data for suppliers, retailers and search engines. Used online and in stores, Edgenet solutions ensure that businesses and consumers can make purchasing and inventory decisions based on accurate product information. Last year, it implemented an In-Memory OLTP solution built on SQL Server 2014, which has helped it continue to innovate and lead in its business
We caught up with Michael Steineke, Vice President of IT at Edgenet, to discuss the benefits he has seen since Edgenet implemented SQL Server 2014.
Q: Can you give us a quick overview of what Edgenet does?
A: We develop software that helps retailers sell products in the home building and automotive industries. We work with both large and small dealers and provide software that helps determine and compare which products are in a local store.
We provide the specs, pictures, manuals, diagrams, and all the rest of the information that a customer would need to make an informed decision. We take all of this data, standardize it, and provide it to retailers and search engines.
With the major shift to online sales over the past handful of years, retailers need to have relevant and timely product information available so the customer can compare products and buy the best one for their needs.
In a single store, inventory is easy. In a chain where you have 1,000 or 5,000 stores, that gets very complicated. Our company is built on product data, and we need a powerful solution to manage it.
Q: What is your technology solution?
A: We are using In-Memory OLTP based on SQL Server 2014 to power our inventory search. This is where SQL Server 2014 comes in. Our applications make sure we have the right product listed, pricing and availability, and we couldn’t do it without In-Memory OLTP.
Q: What types of benefits have you seen since deployment?
A: SQL Server 2014 and OLTP have helped change our business. Our clients are happy as well. No matter what our customers need, we can do it with our solution. If a retailer wants to supply the data to us every 10 minutes, we can update every 10 minutes. It’s the way we like to do our business.
Q: Why did you choose to deploy SQL 2014 in your organization?
A: Working with Microsoft was a natural choice since we often are early adopters with new technologies. Our goal is to utilize new feature sets of new software as much as possible so we stay innovators in the field. That was the main reason we were so excited to deploy the In-Memory OLTP features with SQL Server 2014.
Q: What type of data are you managing?
A: Our inventory data isn’t extremely large, but there is a lot of volatility with it. We are talking about managing thousands of products across thousands of stores, with different pricing and availability for each store. There could be hundreds of millions of rows for just one retailer. Our big data implementation is around managing this volatility in the market, and we need a powerful back-end solution to help us handle all sorts of information.
Q: What are the advantages of In-Memory OLTP?
A: The biggest advantage we are getting is the ability to continually keep data up-to-date, so we always have real-time inventory and pricing. While we are updating we can continue to use the same tables, with little or no impact on performance. We were also able to consolidate a database used for the application to read that was refreshed daily and a database that consumed the updates from our customers, to one In-Memory database.
For more information about SQL Server 2014, check out the website and start a free trial today.
