3xLOGIC VIGIL Trends enhances big data capabilities for retail solutions with Microsoft Azure

3xLOGIC, Inc., a provider of integrated intelligent security solutions and a Microsoft Gold Partner, announced it is utilising Microsoft Azure to supercharge the performance of its cloud-based exception reporting platform, VIGIL Trends.

Cost-effective solution data storage solution

3xLOGIC uses Azure to process over 50 million unique pieces of point of sale (POS) data each day with VIGIL Trends. Azure Table storage serves as the backbone for the entire 3xLOGIC Trends platform, offering a resilient big data storage solution due to its highly reliable, massively scalable, and easy-to-use storage capabilities.

3xLOGIC deploys many Azure Services that automatically scale up or down based on the amount of POS data waiting in queue to be processed, making Azure a cost-effective solution. 3xLOGIC also takes advantage of Azure SQL Database to manage all of its customers’ users and locations, Azure Blob storage (used to store about 20K video clips a day), and Azure Table storage to store all raw data from customers, including about 50 million pieces of POS data each day. 3xLOGIC’s end product is delivered through Azure as well, capitalising on continuous integration options for easy deployment to the web.

Managing retailer data

Any large retailer can benefit because VIGIL Trends better manages and searches immense amounts of data to minimise employee theft, while optimising store operations. In today’s retail environment, no one has a lot of extra time, and Trends delivers high-value benefits without requiring a lot of time invested. Given today’s demands on loss prevention (LP) personnel, Trends shows the LP professional where to look most effectively. Retailers can now remove dishonest employees much faster by finding them quicker and with little or no staff training needed. Trends is designed for an LP staff of any size, but it is especially beneficial to smaller LP departments that are stretched and looking for the highest ROI for time invested.

“Ten years ago, you’d need a multi-million-dollar investment to realise what we can achieve now using Microsoft Azure: We are storing incredible amounts of data available at our fingertips for a very reasonable cost,” said Charlie Erickson, EVP Product Development, 3xLOGIC. “To illustrate, for just one of our customers, Murphy USA, we record 1.5 billion transactions at average of five items per transaction, so with Azure for this one end user we have the capability to instantly search 7.5 billion data points.”

Erickson continued, “Microsoft has empowered us to deliver impressive, measurable results for our customers, and what’s more, they are literally improving these tools on a daily basis. They have an incredible amount of resources working on continuous tool improvement, and we benefit from all of that now and well into the future.”

Data security and privacy

ShiSh Shridhar, Director of Retail Business Development, Microsoft Corp. said, “Microsoft understands the critical role efficient data processing plays for retailers. We are pleased to see 3XLOGIC benefit from Microsoft Azure’s broad portfolio of services as it helps meet the demands of the fast-changing retail industry.”

If customers invest in a cloud service, they must be able to trust that their customers’ data is safe, that the privacy of their data is protected, and that they retain ownership of and control over their data—that it will only be used in a way that is consistent with their expectations. 3xLOGIC’s long experience running online services has involved extensive investment in foundational technology that builds security and privacy into the development process. Over time, the company has developed leading security measures and privacy policies, and participated in international compliance programs with independent verification of how they measure up.