Data could arguably be considered the largest responsibility we have at eCarList. We are in the business of collecting data, storing data and serving data. Therefore, we must ensure accuracy, availability and scalability to our customers, which usually happens so far behind the red curtain that it can easily be forgotten or taken for granted.
Recently eCarList decided to make a data migration of staggering proportions. This transfer included moving our images to a “cloud”. Cloud computing is new remote, internet-based, shared, on-demand data technology which most major internet companies have moved to from the days of mainframe computing. Moving something as basic as images may not sound like a big deal to most, but eCarList inherits 500,000 new vehicle photos every single day from our dealers. In-turn, this has resulted in the necessity for us to serve up over 2 BILLION images worldwide. Anyone who owns a PC knows how large image files can be, and we have to host 6 versions of each photo.
As with any transfer, there are risks involved and unforeseen hurdles, but we at eCarList realize handling our clients’ data is as much an asset as it is a liability. Therefore it would be negligent for us not to explore new technologies to handle the information we have been entrusted with.
This new cloud computing platform enables us to take advantage of multi-data center integrity and a regional content delivery system. By distributing these resources around the country, we are offering our customers more reliability and a better customer and consumer experience, even though we absorbed a much higher cost of doing so.
Our goal is to provide greater reliability to our valued clients. The greater upside is that this change allows us to focus on new products and features, instead of recreating the wheel of static content delivery.
So we thank you for your continued business, and apologize sincerely if this migration had caused any temporary technical difficulties. We are certain you will reap the rewards, if you have not already.
