Highlights from the 2015 Suning Big Data Meetup: Platforms, Spark, and Octopus

On July 25, 2015, Suning Cloud Commerce Group IT Headquarters and Nanjing University PASA Big Data Lab co‑hosted the “Nanjing Big Data Technology Meetup & 2nd Suning Technical Exchange Day” at Suning’s headquarters in Nanjing.

The event focused on big‑data technologies under the theme “Internet Engine, Data‑Driven”, gathering nearly three hundred experts, industry professionals and researchers from Nanjing University, Intel Asia‑Pacific R&D, ZTE and other institutions.

Opening Remarks – Suning IT Headquarters Deputy General Manager Ji Huaiyuan introduced Suning’s big‑data center, highlighted the success of the 618 promotion, and previewed the upcoming 818 promotion. The meetup agenda was then presented by Gu Rong, a PhD candidate from Nanjing University.

Technical Sessions

1. Suning Cloud Commerce Big Data Platform Architecture – Senior expert Wang Zhiqiang described Suning’s overall big‑data architecture, covering massive data platform, streaming computation platform, KV storage platform, and data development platform, and outlined future focus areas.

2. Spark Big Data Processing Ecosystem and Latest Advances – Intel Shanghai big‑data senior expert Sun Rui presented Spark’s ecosystem, highlighted new features in Spark 1.4, and explained Intel’s contributions, drawing on his team’s long‑standing involvement and over ten active contributors.

3. ZTE DAP Big Data Platform – Senior engineer Zhu Kezhi introduced the current state of big‑data development, analyzed technical and economic feasibility, and detailed the DAP platform architecture, its open‑layer functions and technical scope.

4. Octopus: A Unified Big Data Analytics Programming Model and Platform – PhD candidate Gu Rong presented his research on a cross‑platform unified programming model for machine‑learning and data‑mining algorithms, demonstrated the Octopus model and system architecture, and shared performance evaluation results.

The audience responded enthusiastically, asking questions during the tea break and receiving prompt answers from the speakers.

The half‑day meetup concluded by showcasing Suning’s big‑data platform achievements and illustrating how its robust architecture enables effective data analysis for business operations. The event reaffirmed Suning’s commitment to open, shared technology exchange and hinted at future technical sharing sessions.

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