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Holiday Retail Booming - Dependable Application Performance is a Must

Matthieu Silbermann

Retail forecasts were on target for the extended Thanksgiving weekend this year, with sales figures for the period indicating it was the strongest start of the holiday shopping season ever recorded . But while Cyber Monday was touted as the best time for online bargains, billions of dollars still went to brick-and-mortar retailers offering steep discounts.

One trend that caught retailers by surprise this year was the speed with which all of the mayhem came to a halt. Traffic at many locations dissipated by mid-afternoon on Black Friday as savvy shoppers took advantage of mobile applications and interactive, in-store sales tools to target bargains within minutes of crossing the threshold.

In-store purchasing systems like tablet-based applications gave retailers the upper hand in helping consumers save time shopping – which is critical as the holiday season comes to a close. Rather than leaving customers to their own devices, a sales associate can use an app to input the consumers' needs and quickly determine what product – and at what price – is the best fit.

This past year, a British consumer technology retailer implemented such a program in their stores. To help streamline operations among 1,300 locations, their tablet-based application relies upon lightning-fast broadband to run tablets used by sales associates on the floor. This helps the customer speed up their buying experience, allowing them to more easily explore other purchases while freeing up sales associates to pursue a greater number of potential leads.

In-store purchasing systems like this are not only great for spotting bargains, but also for speeding up and easing an otherwise frenzied shopping season. This is especially true on such storied shopping holidays as Black Friday when discounted inventories are limited. Once prized sales merchandise is no longer available, shoppers will need all the help they can get in the weeks leading up to the New Year to find suitable alternatives while prices are still low.

Now that the holiday shopping season is in full swing, retailers and buyers alike must ensure that their resources are dependable. Not only will stores need to utilize advanced shopping technology, but also systems to support their apps and devices that are running on all cylinders. An application performance tool can guarantee delivery of actionable visibility and in-depth network and application performance information to IT managers to make sure systems aren't overwhelmed during high periods of traffic. By allowing full control of application flow, IT complexity is simplified and the customer experience is reshaped – hopefully resulting in higher customer spending.

Holiday purchases are estimated to account for 19 percent of all retail sales in 2015, which in total will come to $3.2 trillion dollars, according to the National Retail Federation. The weekend following Thanksgiving only accounts for a small portion of that total, which means retailers need to be on their top game throughout the rest of the month if they want to capitalize on the season's financial potential.

Matthieu Silbermann is Director Product Management at InfoVista.

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Holiday Retail Booming - Dependable Application Performance is a Must

Matthieu Silbermann

Retail forecasts were on target for the extended Thanksgiving weekend this year, with sales figures for the period indicating it was the strongest start of the holiday shopping season ever recorded . But while Cyber Monday was touted as the best time for online bargains, billions of dollars still went to brick-and-mortar retailers offering steep discounts.

One trend that caught retailers by surprise this year was the speed with which all of the mayhem came to a halt. Traffic at many locations dissipated by mid-afternoon on Black Friday as savvy shoppers took advantage of mobile applications and interactive, in-store sales tools to target bargains within minutes of crossing the threshold.

In-store purchasing systems like tablet-based applications gave retailers the upper hand in helping consumers save time shopping – which is critical as the holiday season comes to a close. Rather than leaving customers to their own devices, a sales associate can use an app to input the consumers' needs and quickly determine what product – and at what price – is the best fit.

This past year, a British consumer technology retailer implemented such a program in their stores. To help streamline operations among 1,300 locations, their tablet-based application relies upon lightning-fast broadband to run tablets used by sales associates on the floor. This helps the customer speed up their buying experience, allowing them to more easily explore other purchases while freeing up sales associates to pursue a greater number of potential leads.

In-store purchasing systems like this are not only great for spotting bargains, but also for speeding up and easing an otherwise frenzied shopping season. This is especially true on such storied shopping holidays as Black Friday when discounted inventories are limited. Once prized sales merchandise is no longer available, shoppers will need all the help they can get in the weeks leading up to the New Year to find suitable alternatives while prices are still low.

Now that the holiday shopping season is in full swing, retailers and buyers alike must ensure that their resources are dependable. Not only will stores need to utilize advanced shopping technology, but also systems to support their apps and devices that are running on all cylinders. An application performance tool can guarantee delivery of actionable visibility and in-depth network and application performance information to IT managers to make sure systems aren't overwhelmed during high periods of traffic. By allowing full control of application flow, IT complexity is simplified and the customer experience is reshaped – hopefully resulting in higher customer spending.

Holiday purchases are estimated to account for 19 percent of all retail sales in 2015, which in total will come to $3.2 trillion dollars, according to the National Retail Federation. The weekend following Thanksgiving only accounts for a small portion of that total, which means retailers need to be on their top game throughout the rest of the month if they want to capitalize on the season's financial potential.

Matthieu Silbermann is Director Product Management at InfoVista.

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According to Auvik's 2025 IT Trends Report, 60% of IT professionals feel at least moderately burned out on the job, with 43% stating that their workload is contributing to work stress. At the same time, many IT professionals are naming AI and machine learning as key areas they'd most like to upskill ...

Businesses that face downtime or outages risk financial and reputational damage, as well as reducing partner, shareholder, and customer trust. One of the major challenges that enterprises face is implementing a robust business continuity plan. What's the solution? The answer may lie in disaster recovery tactics such as truly immutable storage and regular disaster recovery testing ...

IT spending is expected to jump nearly 10% in 2025, and organizations are now facing pressure to manage costs without slowing down critical functions like observability. To meet the challenge, leaders are turning to smarter, more cost effective business strategies. Enter stage right: OpenTelemetry, the missing piece of the puzzle that is no longer just an option but rather a strategic advantage ...

Amidst the threat of cyberhacks and data breaches, companies install several security measures to keep their business safely afloat. These measures aim to protect businesses, employees, and crucial data. Yet, employees perceive them as burdensome. Frustrated with complex logins, slow access, and constant security checks, workers decide to completely bypass all security set-ups ...

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Cloudbrink's Personal SASE services provide last-mile acceleration and reduction in latency

In MEAN TIME TO INSIGHT Episode 13, Shamus McGillicuddy, VP of Research, Network Infrastructure and Operations, at EMA discusses hybrid multi-cloud networking strategy ... 

In high-traffic environments, the sheer volume and unpredictable nature of network incidents can quickly overwhelm even the most skilled teams, hindering their ability to react swiftly and effectively, potentially impacting service availability and overall business performance. This is where closed-loop remediation comes into the picture: an IT management concept designed to address the escalating complexity of modern networks ...

In 2025, enterprise workflows are undergoing a seismic shift. Propelled by breakthroughs in generative AI (GenAI), large language models (LLMs), and natural language processing (NLP), a new paradigm is emerging — agentic AI. This technology is not just automating tasks; it's reimagining how organizations make decisions, engage customers, and operate at scale ...

In the early days of the cloud revolution, business leaders perceived cloud services as a means of sidelining IT organizations. IT was too slow, too expensive, or incapable of supporting new technologies. With a team of developers, line of business managers could deploy new applications and services in the cloud. IT has been fighting to retake control ever since. Today, IT is back in the driver's seat, according to new research by Enterprise Management Associates (EMA) ...

In today's fast-paced and increasingly complex network environments, Network Operations Centers (NOCs) are the backbone of ensuring continuous uptime, smooth service delivery, and rapid issue resolution. However, the challenges faced by NOC teams are only growing. In a recent study, 78% state network complexity has grown significantly over the last few years while 84% regularly learn about network issues from users. It is imperative we adopt a new approach to managing today's network experiences ...

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