Suppose you’ve ever searched on a map for a business location or searched for store hours. In that case, you know how irritating it can be when the directions lead you to the wrong destination or you find that the business has already closed even though the store hours said “open.” This is a huge problem in today’s hyper-connected world, with mobile search surpassing desktop search for the first time in 2015.
And while ecommerce has grown exponentially, brick-and-mortar still dominates the market with over 90% of retail sales occurring in-store. As more and more consumers are searching on mobile devices for information about their local environment, Yext’s mission is to help businesses ensure location information is always accurate, rich, and engaging in order to reach these local consumers and drive more foot traffic through the front door.
As a comprehensive data management platform, Yext enables its customers to update and manage global location information about their physical store locations in real time from one centralized interface. More than 500,000 businesses worldwide, ranging from Fortune 500 enterprises to small mom-and-pop shops, rely on Yext services to control their listings across more than 100 map, app, search engine, directory, and social media partners, including Apple, Facebook, Bing, and Yahoo. As a result, consumers get reliable and rich information about local businesses, such as store hours, photos, special deals, product lists and more, helping them find exactly what they’re looking for and make easier purchasing decisions.
Reliability and uptime
To meet the needs of its customers, Yext’s digital location management services must be highly available and always on. Yext uses colocation and Performance IPTM service from Internap as the foundation of its infrastructure to ensure reliability and uptime.
Based in New York, Yext maintains its environment in Internap’s Secaucus, NJ, data center with a disaster recovery site in Dallas. Yext is able to synchronize data between the two environments using Internap’s unique data center interconnection service.
Yext runs its core customer-facing platform from the Internap environment, including the portal dashboard where businesses manage their locations. When a business changes the location information from the dashboard, the Yext service then pushes the changes out to the publishers in real time.
Internap’s Secaucus, NJ facility is designed to be concurrently maintainable, which means any component of the system can be shut down for maintenance or upgrades without affecting uptime. This minimizes the risk of service disruptions and provides a reliable infrastructure to ensure dependable service for Yext’s customers.
High-density colocation
Yext is building out its environment with the highest-density blade servers available. This allows the company to gain value by achieving higher performance levels in a smaller footprint without buying more network gear.
The high power density offered in the Secaucus data center allows Yext to get the best performance in a small space for maximum cost efficiency. With access to additional circuits, Yext can grow in place without having to expand its footprint when it needs more power.
Security standards
As Yext enters into relationships with new publishers to expand its service reach, Internap’s SOC 2 type 2 data centers are particularly important. SOC 2 type 2 reports provide information about operational controls and include auditor insight into how well those controls work. Sharing these reports gives prospective publishers transparency into the capabilities of Internap data centers and is often a critical part of negotiations.
With a reliable infrastructure in place, Yext can focus on innovative new solutions including its latest product, Xone, which leverages Bluetooth beacon technology to help businesses engage their mobile audience in unprecedented new ways, both in-store and post-visit.
As a result of using Internap’s reliable colocation and Performance IP service, Yext can provide an always-on solution for businesses around the world. Yext’s data management platform ensures its customers always have complete control of their digital information and can update at scale and in real time. As a result, local searching consumers always find consistent, accurate and engaging information that helps drive them to the doorstep of their favorite businesses.
