At HomeAdvisor, we typically experience surges in traffic after major weather events, as homeowners and businesses alike need additional help with snow removal, handyman repairs, etc. But until recently, we never had a good way to visualize this increase in activity on our platform. At the micro level we could monitor core server performance, but metrics like CPU and memory utilization don't provide any context as to what is happening. And while application metrics like API requests and database queries give us a little more insight, they typically require some level of aggregation or translation to really understand them. In other words, looking at server and application metrics typically show you the symptoms of the problem without providing any diagnosis. In this post we'll discuss our home grown real time data visualization suite that is based on Kafka, MongoDB, Node.js, and D3.js. This platform helps us visualize key business metrics and data in real time from any web browser. … [Read more...]
Welcome To The HomeAdvisor Technology Blog
Welcome to the HomeAdvisor technology blog. Before we dive into what you can expect to find here, perhaps a little background is in order. HomeAdvisor, formerly ServiceMagic, is a marketplace that connects homeowners with home service professionals. We are headquartered in Golden, Colo. Our technology group, which is responsible building and maintaining multiple public-facing platforms, is comprised of around a hundred or so engineers specializing in various disciplines — including Java, Front End, U/X, QA, CM and more. We practice Agile/Scrum techniques and are always self-evaluating to identify what we do well and what we can improve on. We emphasize stability, functionality and innovation in all of our processes. And when the going gets tough, we play ping-pong and foosball to help us clear our minds. So what can you expect from this technology blog? Like many software organizations, we are constantly faced with challenges both large and small when it comes to designing, … [Read more...]