Daniel Pearson , CEO, KnownHostJune 12, 20253 Min ReadBusiness success concept. Cubes with arrows and target on the top.Cyber incidents are expected to cost the US $639 billion in 2025. According to the latest estimates, this dynamic will continue to rise, reaching approximately 1.82 trillion US dollars in cybercrime costs by 2028. These figures highlight the crucial importance of strong cybersecurity strategies, which businesses must build to reduce the likelihood of risks. As technology evolves at a dramatic pace, businesses are increasingly dependent on utilizing digital infrastructure, exposing themselves to threats such as ransomware, accidental data loss, and corruption.  Despite the 3-2-1 backup rule being invented in 2009, this strategy has stayed relevant for businesses over the years, ensuring that the loss of data is minimized under threat, and will be a crucial method in the upcoming years to prevent major data loss.   What Is the 3-2-1 Backup Rule? The 3-2-1 backup rule is a popular backup strategy that ensures resilience against data loss. The setup consists of keeping your original data and two backups.  The data also needs to be stored in two different locations, such as the cloud or a local drive.  The one in the 3-2-1 backup rule represents storing a copy of your data off site, and this completes the setup.  This setup has been considered a gold standard in IT security, as it minimizes points of failure and increases the chance of successful data recovery in the event of a cyber-attack.  Related:Why Is This Rule Relevant in the Modern Cyber Threat Landscape? Statistics show that in 2024, 80% of companies have seen an increase in the frequency of cloud attacks.  Although many businesses assume that storing data in the cloud is enough, it is certainly not failsafe, and businesses are in bigger danger than ever due to the vast development of technology and AI capabilities attackers can manipulate and use.  As the cloud infrastructure has seen a similar speed of growth, cyber criminals are actively targeting these, leaving businesses with no clear recovery option. Therefore, more than ever, businesses need to invest in immutable backup solutions.  Common Backup Mistakes Businesses Make A common misstep is keeping all backups on the same physical network. If malware gets in, it can quickly spread and encrypt both the primary data and the backups, wiping out everything in one go. Another issue is the lack of offline or air-gapped backups. Many businesses rely entirely on cloud-based or on-premises storage that's always connected, which means their recovery options could be compromised during an attack. Related:Finally, one of the most overlooked yet crucial steps is testing backup restoration. A backup is only useful if it can actually be restored. Too often, companies skip regular testing. This can lead to a harsh reality check when they discover, too late, that their backup data is either corrupted or completely inaccessible after a breach. How to Implement the 3-2-1 Backup Rule? To successfully implement the 3-2-1 backup strategy as part of a robust cybersecurity framework, organizations should start by diversifying their storage methods. A resilient approach typically includes a mix of local storage, cloud-based solutions, and physical media such as external hard drives.  From there, it's essential to incorporate technologies that support write-once, read-many functionalities. This means backups cannot be modified or deleted, even by administrators, providing an extra layer of protection against threats. To further enhance resilience, organizations should make use of automation and AI-driven tools. These technologies can offer real-time monitoring, detect anomalies, and apply predictive analytics to maintain the integrity of backup data and flag any unusual activity or failures in the process. Lastly, it's crucial to ensure your backup strategy aligns with relevant regulatory requirements, such as GDPR in the UK or CCPA in the US. Compliance not only mitigates legal risk but also reinforces your commitment to data protection and operational continuity. Related:By blending the time-tested 3-2-1 rule with modern advances like immutable storage and intelligent monitoring, organizations can build a highly resilient backup architecture that strengthens their overall cybersecurity posture. About the AuthorDaniel Pearson CEO, KnownHostDaniel Pearson is the CEO of KnownHost, a managed web hosting service provider. Pearson also serves as a dedicated board member and supporter of the AlmaLinux OS Foundation, a non-profit organization focused on advancing the AlmaLinux OS -- an open-source operating system derived from RHEL. His passion for technology extends beyond his professional endeavors, as he actively promotes digital literacy and empowerment. Pearson's entrepreneurial drive and extensive industry knowledge have solidified his reputation as a respected figure in the tech community. See more from Daniel Pearson ReportsMore ReportsNever Miss a Beat: Get a snapshot of the issues affecting the IT industry straight to your inbox.SIGN-UPYou May Also Like

WTF?! When the president of the United States and the world's richest person have a falling out, the ramifications can be widespread. Since Musk and Trump went from friends to enemies, $152 billion has been wiped off Tesla's share price, and Musk has threatened to decommission the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft that NASA relies on to deliver crew to and from the International Space Station. Musk has also said that Trump appears in files relating to Jeffrey Epstein. When he left the White House last week, Musk blasted those who said he'd had a falling out with Trump. The CEO insisted his departure was due to his scheduled 130 days as a government employee coming to an end. But Musk had been publicly criticizing Trump's Big Beautiful Bill Act, warning it would increase the budget deficit. After learning that an electric-vehicle tax credit that would help incentivize Tesla purchases was not included in the bill, Musk called it "a disgusting abomination" on X and urged Americans to call Congress to have the bill killed. On Thursday, the two men used their respective social media platforms to throw insults at each other. At one point, Trump threatened to "terminate Elon's Governmental Subsidies and Contracts" as a way to slash billions of dollars from the budget. The warning sent Tesla's shares down just over 14%, wiping around $152 billion off its valuation – and almost $100 billion off Musk's total net worth. In response to Trump's threat to cancel Musk's government contracts, Musk said SpaceX will begin decommissioning its Dragon spacecraft immediately. The craft, which NASA relies on for transport missions including ferrying astronauts to the ISS, is under contract worth roughly $4.9 billion. The capsule is the only US spacecraft capable of flying humans into orbit. The only other crewed spacecraft that sends astronauts to the ISS is Russia's Soyuz system. However, after an X user told him to "cool off," Musk wrote, "Ok, we won't decommission Dragon." // Related Stories As the war of words has grown, Musk said Trump's controversial tariffs will cause a recession in the second half of this year. But his "really big bomb" was an allegation that Trump appears in the files of pedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein, who killed himself in his jail cell in August 2019 while awaiting trial. Musk has also shared a post calling for Trump's impeachment and posted a poll asking if a new political party should be created in the US that "actually represents the 80% in the middle." 81% of the 4.4 million respondents have voted yes. One has to wonder if Musk believes his time in the White House was worth it. Beyond his reputational damage, his companies have suffered by association. Tesla sales were down 50% last month, and there have been protests and attacks on dealerships. The company's share price is down 40% from its all-time high on December 17, 2024, before Musk was part of DOGE.

When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works. Raspberry Pi Imager 1.9.4 released bringing performance improvements, bug fixes and more David Uzondu Neowin · Jun 5, 2025 05:12 EDT Raspberry Pi Imager 1.9.4 is now out, marking the first official release in its 1.9.x series. This application, for anyone new to it, is a tool from the Raspberry Pi Foundation. It first came out in March 2020. Its main job is to make getting an operating system onto a microSD card or USB drive for any Raspberry Pi computer super simple, even if you hate the command line. It handles downloading selected OS images and writing them correctly, cutting out several manual steps that used to trip people up, like finding the right image version or using complicated disk utility tools. This version brings solid user interface improvements for a smoother experience, involving internal tweaks that contribute to a more polished feel. Much work went into global accessibility, adding new Korean and Georgian translations. Updates also cover Chinese, German, Spanish, Italian, and many others. Naturally, a good number of bugs got squashed, including a fix for tricky long filename issues on Windows and an issue with the Escape key in the options popup. Changes specific to operating systems are also clear. Windows users get an installer using Inno Setup. Its program files, installer, and uninstaller are now signed for better Windows security. For macOS, .app file naming in .dmg packages is fixed, and building the software is more reliable. Linux users can now hide system drives from the destination list, a great way to prevent accidentally wiping your main computer drives. The Linux AppImage also disables Wayland support by default. The full list of changes is outlined below: Fixed minor errors in Simplified Chinese translation Updated translations for German, Catalan, Spanish, Slovak, Portuguese, Hebrew, Traditional Chinese, Italian, Korean, and Georgian Explicitly added --tree to lsblk to hide partitions from the top-level output CMake now displays the version as v1.9.1 Added support for quiet uninstallation on Windows Applied regex to match SSH public keys during OS customization Updated dependencies: libarchive (3.7.4 → 3.7.7 → 3.8.0) zlib (removed preconfigured header → updated to 1.4.1.1) cURL (8.8 → 8.11.0 → 8.13.0) nghttp2 (updated to 1.65.0) zstd (updated to 1.5.7) xz/liblzma (updated to 5.8.1) Windows-specific updates: Switched to Inno Setup for the installer Added code signing for binaries, installer, and uninstaller Enabled administrator privileges and NSIS removal support Fixed a bug causing incorrect saving of long filenames macOS-specific updates: Fixed .app naming in .dmg packages Improved build reliability and copyright Linux-specific updates: System drives are now hidden in destination popup Wayland support disabled in AppImage General UI/UX improvements: Fixed OptionsPopup not handling the Esc key Improved QML code structure, accessibility, and linting Made options popup modal Split main UI into component files Added a Style singleton and ImCloseButton component Internationalization (i18n): Made "Recommended" OS string translatable Made "gigabytes" translatable Packaging improvements: Custom AppImage build script with Qt detection Custom Qt build script with unprivileged mode Qt 6.9.0 included Dependencies migrated to FetchContent system Build system: CMake version bumped to 3.22 Various improvements and hardening applied Removed "Show password" checkbox in OS customization settings Reverted unneeded changes in long filename size calculation Internal refactoring and performance improvements in download and extract operations Added support for more archive formats via libarchive Lastly, it's worth noting that the system requirements have changed since version 1.9.0: macOS users will need version 11 or later; Windows users, Windows 10 or newer; Ubuntu users, version 22.04 or newer; and Debian users, Bookworm or later. Tags Report a problem with article Follow @NeowinFeed

Google's reckoning Google and DOJ tussle over how AI will remake the web in antitrust closing arguments Google and the DOJ get one last chance to make their cases. Ryan Whitwam – May 30, 2025 5:40 pm | 15 Credit: Ryan Whitwam Credit: Ryan Whitwam Story text Size Small Standard Large Width * Standard Wide Links Standard Orange * Subscribers only   Learn more From its humble beginnings in the late 20th century, Google has come to dominate online searches, putting it squarely in the US government's antitrust crosshairs. The ongoing search antitrust case threatens to upend Google's dominance, giving smaller players a chance to thrive and possibly wiping others out. After wrapping up testimony in the case earlier this month, lawyers for Google and the Department of Justice have now made their closing arguments. The DOJ won the initial trial, securing a ruling that Google used anticompetitive practices to maintain its monopoly in general search. During the time this case has taken to meander its way through the legal system, the online landscape has been radically altered, making it harder than ever to envision a post-Google Internet. To address Google's monopoly, the DOJ is asking United States District Judge Amit Mehta to impose limits on Google's business dealings and order a divestment of the Chrome browser. Forcing the sale of Chrome would be a major penalty and a coup for the DOJ lawyers, but this issue has been overshadowed somewhat as the case drags on. During closing arguments, the two sides dueled over how Google's search deals and the rise of AI could change the Internet as we know it. Collateral damage This case has examined the myriad ways Google used its influence and money to suppress competition. One of the DOJ's main targets is the placement deals Google signs with companies like Apple and Mozilla to be the default search provider. Google has contended that people can change the defaults anytime they wish, but the DOJ produced evidence at trial that almost no one does, and Google knows that. During closing arguments,  Mehta asked both sides about testimony from a Mozilla executive alleging that losing the Google search deal could destroy the company. Similarly, Apple's Eddie Cue said he loses sleep over the possibility of losing the Google revenue—unsurprising as the arrangement is believed to net the company $20 billion per year. Should Firefox die to teach Google a lesson? Credit: Santiago Mejia/San Francisco Chronicle Should Firefox die to teach Google a lesson? Credit: Santiago Mejia/San Francisco Chronicle The DOJ's David Dahlquist admitted that there could be some "private impact" but contended Apple and Mozilla are overestimating the risk. Mehta didn't seem totally satisfied with the government's position, noting that he didn't want to damage other markets in an effort to fix search. Google's counsel also went after the government on the privacy front. One of the DOJ's proposed remedies would require Google to license its search index and algorithm, which CEO Sundar Pichai claimed was no better than a spinoff of Google's core product. Google also claims that forcing it to license search would put everyone's privacy at risk because it has a vast amount of user data that fuels search. Google attorney John Schmidtlein said the DOJ's treatment of user privacy in the remedies was a "complete failure." Mehta questioned the government lawyers pointedly on the issue of privacy, which he noted was barely addressed in the remedy filings. The DOJ's Adam Severt suggested an independent committee would have to be empaneled to decide how to handle Google's user data, but he was vague on how long such a process could take. Google's team didn't like this idea at all. Case may hinge on AI During testimony in early May, Mehta commented that the role AI plays in the trial had evolved very quickly. In 2023, everyone in his courtroom agreed that the impact of AI on search was still years away, and that's definitely not the case now. That same thread is present in closing arguments. Mehta asked the DOJ's Dahlquist if someone new was just going to "come off the sidelines" and build a new link-based search product, given  the developments with AI. Dahlquist didn't answer directly, noting that although generative AI products didn't exist at the time covered by the antitrust action, they would be key to search going forward. Google certainly believes the AI future is already here—it has gone all-in with AI search over the past year. At the same time, Google is seeking to set itself apart from AI upstarts. "Generative AI companies are not trying to out-Google Google," said Schmidtlein. Google's team contends that its actions have not harmed any AI products like ChatGPT or Perplexity, and at any rate, they are not in the search market as defined by the court. Mehta mused about the future of search, suggesting we may have to rethink what a general search engine is in 2025. "Maybe people don’t want 10 blue links anymore," he said. The Chromium problem and an elegant solution At times during the case, Mehta has expressed skepticism about the divestment of Chrome. During closing arguments, Dahlquist reiterated the close relationship between search and browsers, reminding the court that 35 percent of Google's search volume comes from Chrome. Mehta now seems more receptive to a Chrome split than before, perhaps in part because the effects of the other remedies are becoming so murky. He called the Chrome divestment "less speculative" and "more elegant" than the data and placement remedies. Google again claimed, as it has throughout the remedy phase, that forcing it to give up Chrome is unsupported in the law and that Chrome's dominance is a result of innovation. Even if Mehta leans toward ordering this remedy, Chromium may be a sticking point. The judge seems unconvinced that the supposed buyers—a group which apparently includes almost every major tech firm—have the scale and expertise needed to maintain Chromium. This open source project forms the foundation of many other browsers, making its continued smooth operation critical to the web. If Google gives up Chrome, Chromium goes with it, but what about the people who maintain it? The DOJ contends that it's common for employees to come along with an acquisition, but that's far from certain. There was some discussion of ensuring a buyer could commit to hiring staff to maintain Chromium. The DOJ suggests Google could be ordered to provide financial incentives to ensure critical roles are filled, but that sounds potentially messy. A Chrome sale seems more likely now than it did earlier, but nothing is assured yet. Following the final arguments from each side, it's up to Mehta to mull over the facts before deciding Google's fate. That's expected to happen in August, but nothing will change for Google right away. The company has already confirmed it will appeal the case, hoping to have the original ruling overturned. It could still be years before this case reaches its ultimate conclusion. Ryan Whitwam Senior Technology Reporter Ryan Whitwam Senior Technology Reporter Ryan Whitwam is a senior technology reporter at Ars Technica, covering the ways Google, AI, and mobile technology continue to change the world. Over his 20-year career, he's written for Android Police, ExtremeTech, Wirecutter, NY Times, and more. He has reviewed more phones than most people will ever own. You can follow him on Bluesky, where you will see photos of his dozens of mechanical keyboards. 15 Comments

Reading Time: 15 minutes If you’ve been in the Ecommerce game longer than ten minutes, you’ve probably noticed a pattern: every marketer under the sun is obsessed with finding the perfect Ecommerce marketing automation software platform. And honestly? They’re not wrong. Standing out in the cut-throat Ecommerce world is about meeting your audience where they are with hyper-personalized messaging. Spending 23 hours a day doing it manually? News flash: without marketing automation software to help you automate your Ecommerce campaigns, you don’t stand a chance. That’s why 35% of marketers have already automated their Ecommerce customer journeys. But don’t worry, we’ve got your back. This blog post will help you clearly understand and fearlessly implement marketing automation for your Ecommerce brand. Let’s get started!   What is Ecommerce Marketing Automation? Ecommerce marketing automation is the use of software to streamline, personalize, and scale marketing tasks. It powers activities like email campaigns, SMS, push notifications, and customer segmentation. It helps you create smoother, more personalized customer journeys without lifting a finger every single time. By automating repetitive yet impactful tasks, like sending birthday discounts, reminding customers about abandoned carts, and segmenting audiences, you free yourself to focus on strategy. Put simply, it’s how you make your brand feel personal at scale without breaking a sweat.   6 Benefits of Automating Your Ecommerce Marketing By automating the repetitive tasks and fine-tuning your messaging at scale, you can focus on what really matters: building an Ecommerce brand your customers love. Here’s how automating your Ecommerce marketing can take your business to the next level. Improved Customer Insights: Marketing automation for Ecommerce helps you uncover patterns, such as when customers browse, what they frequently abandon in their carts, and how they respond to your campaigns. Understanding this helps you tailor future strategies, delivering what your customers want without the guesswork. Enhanced Customer Service: Make your customers happy, and the revenue will follow. Marketing automation for Ecommerce improves customer experiences by resolving their queries almost instantly. Whether they seek sales assistance or post-purchase support, they no longer have to listen to the annoying IVR music or wait for someone to respond to their ticket. Generate More Leads: Ecommerce marketing automation can improve leads qualitatively and quantitatively. Interestingly, it is a symbiotic relationship, where automation nurtures leads to develop a loyal customer base, which in turn transforms into brand advocates. Such evangelists attract more leads and improve lead-generation activities. Omnichannel Monitoring: Let’s say a customer clicks on your Instagram ad, checks their cart on desktop later, and finishes the purchase on your app. Ecommerce marketing automation platforms track this entire journey, showing you how your customers interact across platforms. It’s like having a bird’s-eye view of all your channels, making omnichannel strategies smoother and more effective. Better Customer Relationships: Automation isn’t just about scaling. It’s about humanizing your approach. Ecommerce marketing automation tools can send personalized messages based on customer behavior, like a thank-you email after a purchase or reminders for a sale item they were eyeing. Over time, these little touches build stronger, more loyal relationships. Higher ROI: By targeting the right customers at the right time and cutting out wasted efforts, you see better conversions, an increased lifetime value, and more efficient campaigns. It’s no surprise that brands using marketing automation for Ecommerce see higher ROI than those managing everything manually.   How to Use Marketing Automation for Ecommerce More Effectively When done right, Ecommerce marketing automation becomes your secret weapon for building stronger customer relationships at scale. Let’s explore how you can level up your automation game and make your Ecommerce workflows work harder for you. 1. Acquire New Contacts You can automate your marketing for Ecommerce to grow your contact list and attract new customers. If you regularly produce high-quality, actionable, and insightful content, your audiences will be keen to hear from you. This situation can be an excellent premise for offering them something of value in exchange for adding their information to your email list. Typically, surveys, whitepapers, reports, and similar documents are available to those who sign up for a business newsletter. Similarly, if someone makes a purchase on your online store, your Ecommerce marketing automation software can add their details to your customer database. Every addition offers granular insight into buyer profiles and helps discover commonalities, which you can later exploit. 2. Segment Your Audience Segmenting your subscribers helps you increase sales by offering customers what they already want. You can segment your contacts to make lists based on various common factors like location, average order value, engagement level, age, profession, etc. For instance, if you have two different types of newsletters for subscribers based on their interests, you’d have to create two different lists of contacts in your Ecommerce marketing automation software to send the right message to the right customers. In fact, you can achieve several levels of segmentation via lists, tags, and custom fields to make your messages highly targeted and relevant to customers. 3. Welcome and Onboard New Customers Like it or not, first impressions matter. Nowadays, it’s a given that signing up on a website would trigger Ecommerce email marketing automation workflows that will welcome customers to the website. These communications can require explicit consent for adding the customer to the email list (we know, managing an email list isn’t easy), share an overview of the brand’s value or message, or guide them through the purchase process. You can also lure the new accounts with promos and discounts that will get them swiping their card in no time! A welcome series can also be particularly helpful in extending customer service for those who have already purchased your product or service. You can share details on how to use the offerings to extract maximum value. Such a consideration can boost customer loyalty and enhance customer experience. 4. Automate the Checkout Process for More Sales A complicated checkout process can deter customers from completing their purchase, but you can prevent a large percentage of abandoned carts by creating a smooth and trustworthy checkout process. With marketing automation for Ecommerce, you can fill in customer details automatically and display preferred payment options to make it as convenient as possible for customers to complete a purchase. You may also add a live chat option on the checkout page to swiftly answer customers’ queries during the buying process. 5. Translate Abandoned Carts into Sales Cart abandonment is a serious problem in the Ecommerce sector. About 7 out of 10 buyers abandon products in their cart for various reasons. This figure varies depending on the device. As a result, cart abandonment can cost your online Ecommerce store billions of dollars in sales per year. Fortunately, marketing automation for Ecommerce attempts to offset these losses through regular follow-ups and check-ins. Automatically triggered emails that hit the right combination of subject lines, email copy, and CTA could convince the shopper to buy from you. 6. Win Back Inactive Customers Similar to cart abandonment, you could have customers who may have signed up on your online store only to forget about you entirely! Or you could have someone who made an occasional purchase and pulled the plug on their CLV. Ecommerce marketing automation platforms can help in such instances. You can customize email marketing automation campaign workflows that deploy after a lapse of X number of days, offering the client coupons or promos to pique their engagement. 7. Capture Customer Feedback Ecommerce brands that encourage customers to post their ratings and reviews against the products can improve conversion rates. In this regard, marketing automation software makes the task easier through automatic feedback collection. You can implement email marketing automation for Ecommerce that prompts the buyer to share their customer experience after X days post-purchase. 8. Establish Omnichannel Presence Consider a situation where someone has browsed through the products on your online store. This action indicates that they are either curious about the product or have considered purchasing it. That’s a lead right there. Through Ecommerce marketing automation tools, you can reach the lead through other channels, say social media platforms, and test their responses. If they continue engaging with the ads, it is a clear indication that they are a qualified prospect. Automated workflows can then capture their details and continue nurturing them to the point of purchase. That’s the beauty of omnichannel marketing! 9. Send Media-Rich Dynamic Communications Dynamic content refers to customizing your content for visitors. With dynamic content, the content and images on your pages adapt to customers’ in-session behavior, demographic data, and characteristics. This offers two benefits. First, presenting relevant offers helps decrease bounce and increase conversions. Second, it allows you to create personalized experiences. Including rich media, such as product images, can make a world of difference when you are re-engaging your leads. For our Ecommerce customers, we’ve seen product images improving their CTR for emails and rich push notifications. It also offers great potential to cross-sell or upsell products on your online store. All you need to do is set up product blocks and let your marketing automation platform handle the rest. This form of content marketing automation for Ecommerce will share relevant details such as product specifications, price, and other crucial details that will be too tempting to pass up! 10. Use Lead Scoring for Higher Conversion Rates An Ecommerce marketing automation platform that offers lead scoring can help you boost conversions by automatically sending personalized content to prospects depending on their position in the sales funnel. Lead scoring can also be used for pre-qualifying leads before passing them onto your sales team by assigning a score to every lead based on their actions on your website and other predetermined factors. Cold leads or those with low scores can be segmented further and nurtured with personalized content before passing them on to the sales team. For instance, as soon as a subscriber shows interest in buying from your Ecommerce store, you may automatically enter them into a drip campaign to slowly nudge them into completing the purchase. You may set the following types of automated email marketing campaigns to nurture your leads and drive customer loyalty as well: An automated welcome email series for effective onboarding Follow-up emails to remain in touch with new leads on certain predetermined milestones Offer emails to encourage purchase Review requests for feedback and user-generated content (UGC) Abandoned cart emails to recover lost revenue Emails celebrating milestones and personal events 11. A/B Test Your Landing Pages A/B testing refers to simultaneously testing two or more variants of a page to see which one performs the best. With your marketing automation Ecommerce software, you can quickly run such tests between your product pages and landing pages to make informed decisions regarding the digital assets you’ll use. Some of the elements you may consider for split-testing are: Headlines Compare a longer versus a shorter headline Ask a question in your headline Use a testimonial in your headline Try positive and negative emotions Calls-to-Action Compare the use of words like “Free”, “100%”, “Bonus”, etc. Try different color combinations Placement of text Banner Image Placement Color scheme Text on display 12. Invest in an Automated Social Listening Tool With an automated social listening tool, you can monitor customer conversations around phrases, keywords, hashtags, and industry-specific terms. This will give you a holistic view of how customers talk about your brand and what they expect from it. Some social listening tools are also equipped to run sentiment analysis on captured data to give you actionable business insights. 13. Automate Reviews on Your Website Gathering customer feedback and acting on it is crucial to your brand’s success. However, manual collection of reviews can be a tedious job. Instead, you can set up trigger emails that are automatically sent to customers a few days after product delivery to ask for feedback. You may even use web push notifications or in-app prompts to gather feedback and reviews for your products. 14. Reward Loyal Customers Loyal customers buy more. With Ecommerce marketing automation, you can segment your best customers and reward them for their shopping behavior to boost customer loyalty and subsequent sales. An automation program can also be set to convert first-time shoppers into repeat customers by automatically rewarding them with a special discount or promotion via email. Offering customers a coupon or discount code that applies to their second purchase is an excellent way to keep them coming back. Under your loyalty program, you can offer flat discounts, exclusive offers, BOGO promotions, free gifts, and more. 15. Use Chatbots for Customer Service Customer service is the focus of most Ecommerce brands and requires dedicated resources to tend to customers 24/7. This translates into a significant amount of revenue for any brand, which can be optimized with the introduction of chatbots in the front line of customer service. But that’s not all. You can also use chatbots in retail and give your shoppers a highly personalized experience.   7 Ecommerce Marketing Automation Examples to Learn From How can you improve conversion rates and other key metrics through marketing automation for Ecommerce? Nothing hits home like an example does. So here’s a list of marketing automation best practices and strategies used by real-world Ecommerce brands to help you get the gist. 1. Nike: Customer Service Chatbots Source: https://www.producthunt.com/products/github-visualizer#nike-stylebot   As you can see in the above image, Nike StyleBot uses chatbots in retail and gives its shoppers a highly personalized experience. It helps customers style their shoes and browse previously uploaded designs for inspiration. Shoppers can interact with Nike StyleBot on Facebook Messenger to mix and match, create their designs, and share them with friends, making the whole experience a lot more fun than usual. 2. Tattly: Reward Points for Every Purchase Source: https://reallygoodemails.com/emails/youve-earned-6-tattcoin-   Tattoo marketplace Tattly runs an automated point-based system that offers reward points for every purchase that can be redeemed on the site for discounts or other goodies. Why is it such a good Ecommerce strategy? Because, c’mon, who doesn’t like discounts? As you’d agree, customers who buy the second time are even more likely to return for the third time, and so on. Incentivizing subsequent purchases through carefully crafted reward programs, like Tattly does, is an excellent way of building loyalty and promoting sales. It’s a clever way of using a marketing automation software platform! 3. Belgian Boys: Ecommerce Marketing Automation with a Win-Back Email Source: https://reallygoodemails.com/emails/we-miss-you-belgian-boys   Belgian Boys, an NYC-based breakfast item brand, uses email marketing automation software workflows that deploy after a certain number of days have passed without any action from a customer. Given that the account has already gone cold, the brand has nothing to lose, right? That’s what they thought when sending this automated email. The copy’s dripping with food-related metaphors that make the reader lick their lips and think twice about leaving the brand forever. Plus, instead of boring CTAs like “Shop Online” or “Order Now”, the CTA “Wait, there’s been a mistake” is pretty conversational, which makes it all the more fascinating and click-worthy. It gives off a feeling of mystery — the customer is left wondering what’s going to happen next, so they’re tempted to click the button. 4. Airbnb: Request Customer Feedback Source: https://reallygoodemails.com/search/emails/airbnb   First of all, customers seeing a warm and friendly subject line like “We’d Love Your Feedback! It’ll Only Take 3 Minutes” can’t help but open the email. As you can see, this automated email from Airbnb encourages customers to share their feedback about the brand—a chance for them to improve conversion rates. Ecommerce marketing automation software helps them implement email automation that prompts the buyer to share their experience after a certain amount of time following their purchase. 5. Warby Parker: Automated Shipping Confirmation Email Source: https://reallygoodemails.com/emails/transactional-update-email-design-from-warby-parker   Warby Parker sends this email when a customer’s home try-on glasses are shipped. Okay, cool. The customer knows that their order is on the way, and they can track it. They can also verify their address as mentioned at the bottom of the email. But you know what sets this automated email apart? It thanks the customer. And don’t miss the playful “Just for you” heading and the sentence congratulating the customer on choosing to try on the glasses at home. All of that’s a humble way of acknowledging that the customer is important for their brand. Because transactional emails, like this one, get high open rates (who doesn’t want to know when their order has shipped?), Warby Parker knows they can drive a ton of traffic and get sales if they include a few strategic CTAs. 6. Dyson: Abandoned Shopping Cart Email Source: https://reallygoodemails.com/emails/items-in-your-basket-at-dyson-com   Life is hectic, and customers are fickle. There are a thousand reasons why customers don’t finish the checkout process, and Dyson knows that. Sending them this gentle reminder is a surefire way to not only show them that Dyson cares about them, but also coax them to finish what they started. 7. Patagonia: Welcome Email Automation Source: https://reallygoodemails.com/emails/welcome-to-patagonia-emails   When a customer signs up for Patagonia’s emails, they’re immediately welcomed to the email list, with the promise of all types of useful content. And guess what? At the bottom of the email, Patagonia includes a lot of different calls to action (CTAs). When customers click on those, they’re already telling Patagonia what they’re interested in before they’ve even purchased anything. Smooth, right?   5 Best Ecommerce Marketing Automation Software to Increase Engagement Below, we’ll walk you through five of the best Ecommerce marketing automation platforms. We’ll break down what makes each one shine in its own way, where they might fall short, and give you pricing insights to help you pick the right fit for your Ecommerce brand. Let’s get right into it. 1. MoEngage MoEngage is one of those rare platforms that makes tech advanced enough for enterprise brands while still being friendly for mid-sized Ecommerce teams. It’s an all-in-one customer engagement platform combining push notifications, in-app messaging, SMS, email, and more—all tailored for customer lifecycle management. Its standout feature? AI-powered Ecommerce personalization. MoEngage uses machine learning to analyze customer behavior and predict what they might be interested in buying next. For Ecommerce brands, this means you’re not just spamming offers, but landing in their inbox or notifications with exactly what they’re most likely to purchase. How Pricing Works: Plan details vary based on the features your brand needs. Request a custom quote for enterprise-level flexibility. Best For: Ecommerce brands looking for cross-channel marketing automation and predictive audience segmentation with intuitive workflows. 2. BigCommerce Source: https://www.bigcommerce.com/apps/atom8/   BigCommerce is an all-encompassing Ecommerce platform with features to build, run, and grow your online store. That said, because it’s primarily a platform to build and manage your Ecommerce website, its marketing automation workflows can sometimes feel limited compared to those in tools like MoEngage or Omnisend. That’s because BigCommerce doesn’t offer automation on its own platform; you need to integrate GritGlobal’s Atom8 Automation to optimize your online store. So, if you’re neck-deep in email workflows and need automated email drip campaigns, for example, BigCommerce might not check every box. How Pricing Works: Their pricing is tailored to each client’s needs, depending on the growth stage they’re in. Best For: SMBs and mid-market businesses looking for a do-it-all Ecommerce platform with baked-in automation for basic marketing needs. 3. Omnisend If email marketing is your bread and butter, Omnisend may just bake you a second loaf. Designed specifically for Ecommerce marketers, Omnisend combines email, SMS, and push notifications to engage customers at every stage of their journey. Its pre-built, Ecommerce-specific workflows (hello, abandoned cart recovery) are built to save you hours of setup time. The magic lies in its deep integrations with Ecommerce platforms like Shopify, WooCommerce, and BigCommerce. Omnisend’s segmentation features are also worth shouting about. You can easily target customers based on behavior, past purchases, and even how much they’ve spent, so your messaging is as relevant as possible. Where might it fall short? Limited flexibility in cross-channel campaigns (beyond email, push notifications, and SMS). How Pricing Works: Omnisend offers a free plan with basic email automations for 500 contacts. Plans scale upwards based on email list size and features. Best For: Ecommerce brands working with smaller teams but seeking powerful email/SMS automation without the hefty price tag of more enterprise solutions. 4. Rejoiner Rejoiner is at its best for one thing and one thing only: reducing your cart abandonment rates. If your Ecommerce brand is losing more customers than it wins at checkout, this platform can help you build laser-focused campaigns to bring those shoppers back. Its predictive revenue tracking ensures you have clear visibility into how much money is at stake and saved with each abandoned cart workflow. The downside? It’s not an apt tool for cross-channel marketing automation. If you need broader automation beyond email, like SMS, in-app, or push notifications, you’ll need to integrate it with other tools or run them separately. How Pricing Works: Rejoiner’s pricing ranges between $25/month for 1K contacts and $1,695/month for 149K contacts. It offers custom pricing for a list of over 150K contacts. Best For: High-traffic Ecommerce brands laser-focused on maximizing revenue recovery from abandoned carts. 5. ShipStation At first glance, ShipStation might seem like an odd pick for a list of Ecommerce marketing automation tools. But hear us out. While it’s primarily a shipping software solution, it earns its spot here because of its lesser-known post-purchase automation tools. You can delight customers with personalized shipping confirmation emails, branded tracking pages, and upsell offers strategically placed in delivery notifications. If you’ve ever wanted to strengthen loyalty and cross-sell opportunities after someone completes a purchase, ShipStation’s workflows can be a game-changer. However, it’s not built for pre-purchase interactions. If you’re looking to create in-depth automation around acquisition, consider other platforms in this list first. How Pricing Works: Plans start at $9.99/month for smaller businesses and go up to $399.99/month for advanced features and higher shipping limits. Best For: Mid-to-large Ecommerce brands looking to enhance post-purchase customer engagement and improve the customer experience.   Why Omnichannel Beats Multichannel Marketing Automation for Ecommerce Multichannel marketing automation fails to deliver a cohesive experience. It gets your messages across different platforms, but the messages are disconnected. In contrast, omnichannel marketing automation is about connecting the dots so every message feels like part of one big, seamless experience. We know you’ve already heard enough on the omnichannel vs. multichannel marketing debate. But seriously, it gets more interesting when you stop and think about it. Picture this: a customer clicks on a product ad on Instagram, later gets an app notification with a discount code, and finally receives an email reminding them the item is almost sold out. Each touchpoint builds on the last, creating a smooth, personalized customer journey. That’s how omnichannel marketing automation works. Take Nordstrom, for example. Added something to your online cart? You can pick it up in-store the same day. Every interaction, whether it’s an email, a notification, or an in-store visit, feels like part of the same story. A multichannel approach might stop at sending a single email for an abandoned cart. Whether you’re doubling down on omnichannel and cross-channel engagement with MoEngage, building loyalty post-purchase with ShipStation, or maximizing abandoned cart recoveries with Rejoiner, the key is finding the right fit for where you are and where you want to go.   Set Up Ecommerce Marketing Automations with MoEngage MoEngage lets you create seamless, personalized customer journeys that feel more human. From AI-driven insights to tailored message automation, it’s built to keep your audience engaged at every step of their Ecommerce journey. Ready to step up your Ecommerce marketing automation game? See MoEngage in action. The post Ecommerce Marketing Automation Strategies to Boost Revenue appeared first on MoEngage.

We may earn a commission from links on this page.There is a moment during every big move where it hits you: Moving is really freaking expensive. The expenses—from packing supplies and the truck itself to the costs related to cleaning, painting, and utility deposits—will pile up. And I'm not even including the costs of furniture that better fits your new space. Budget—and cushion your budgetI spoke to a number of moving experts—especially people who work at moving companies and have been in the business for years—and most of them emphasized budget before your move—and overestimating what you think you'll spend. Both Shannon Beller, CEO and co-founder of Wall-Russ, and Rob Rimeris, owner of EverSafe Moving Co., say you should add 10 to 15% to your final budget as a cushion. Rimeris says that "isn't just practical," but "gives people back a sense of agency when plans shift." A few often-overlooked expenses that came up included these: tips for your movers (as well as insurance) fuel for the truck or car if you are moving some or all of your possessions, cleaning fees for the place you move into or out of, repairs for your old home, unforeseen extra charges from the movers, and furniture assembly. But wait, there's more: "It may not seem critical at first, but planning for food and takeaway expenses is also important," says Shanaiqua D'sa, content marketing lead at Attic Self Storage. "You're unlikely to cook on moving day or even in the days immediately following, especially if your kitchen isn't fully set up yet or you're simply too tired." Kids and pets, too, "slow down the moving process," she says, so you might want to arrange for someone to look after them. Only move what's necessaryYou're already overwhelmed by how much you have to do and I totally get that, but this is a perfect opportunity to declutter your stuff. In fact, decluttering was cited as a top money-saving tip by many pros: "The biggest mistake we see people make time and time again is underestimating how much stuff they have," says Charles Chica, co-owner of CT Best Moving."Get rid of anything you do not need because the less stuff you have, the cheaper the move will be," adds Marshall Aikman, owner of Amazing Moves Moving & Storage. Sell what you can and buy what you need (used)Consider selling some of what you're getting rid of, as long as you start with enough lead time before your moving day. D'sa points out that you can generate money for the move by offloading old stuff to buyers. If you have enough time between decluttering and moving, list furniture and clothes on sites like Poshmark and Mercari. If you don't have much time, keep it local and stick with Facebook Marketplace, where buyers can come pick up furniture and other objects directly from you and hand over cash. The last time I moved, I listed furniture on Facebook Marketplace and promised myself that if it didn't sell before I left my old place, I had to take it as a loss and donate it, but as Evan Hock, co-founder of MakeMyMove points out, you can also list it in Buy Nothing groups as a free pickup. Whatever it takes to get it out of your space!If you really have enough lead time, organize a rummage sale. It's not as easy to coordinate if you live in a larger city, although I've certainly seen it done, but I grew up in a rural place where this was the norm. As long as you're doing it on private property, most jurisdictions don't require a permit for a short-term yard sale, but please check. Put up a few signs, post some ads on Craigslist, and haul all your for-sale wares to your garage or front lawn. Be prepared to take lowball offers and haggle a little, but you'll be surprised by how much actually sells. You can (and should) list it all on the aforementioned apps and digital marketplaces, too, then donate whatever is left over before the move. If you're moving to a bigger home, online resale and yard sales are also how I recommend filling it—at least at first. Moving is a massive expense, and it might not be feasible to buy or finance big furniture sets from retail stores at first. On the other hand, occupying a near-empty house is a bummer. Buy used essentials to save money and get your home in order. You can re-list it and sell it if and when you're more settled in and financially prepared for better furniture—or you may even fall in love with your eclectic decor collection and keep it. Go “stooping”There is another, even less-expensive option if you need furniture fast. If you live in a big city, you’re familiar with the classic practice of picking up free furniture from the sides of the street. If you live in New York and spend time on Instagram, you’re also probably familiar with the account that makes doing that even easier.@StoopingNYC has 479,000 followers who dutifully snap pics of discarded furniture throughout the five boroughs and DM it to the account owners, along with location details. The owners, in turn, post the photos and relevant information on the account’s story as well as on the grid, encouraging New Yorkers to have at it.“Stooping is the act of hunting down discarded street freebies that has the added benefit of being both an activity you can do outdoors and one that ultimately enriches the space where you’re most likely spending all of your time: your apartment or house!” the couple behind @StoopingNYC tells me.If, instead, you don’t live in a big city where stooping is regularly practiced, snag some stuff on the cheap by mapping out the weekend’s best local yard sales or head to all the online marketplaces where you’re actively ditching your old stuff to make room for the new (to you) stuff your new place will need. (Craigslist also has a “free” section where people frequently give away items.)One word of caution in either case: Make sure you clean the products well and proceed with caution when picking out anything made with fabric, like couches or armchairs. You know what’s not inexpensive? Exterminators.Save on packing suppliesYour budget will include packing supplies like boxes, bubble wrap, and tape, but you should also remember that what you have available can work well to help you pack. You have to move your blankets, towels, clothing, socks, and scarves already, so wrap them around valuables to save some money and space. Per Rimeris, "T-shirts cushion dishes better than bubble wrap ever did." Think about nesting, too. Chica says, "Suitcases, laundry baskets, and grocery totes are all great for packing general items." Again, you're already taking them with you. Make them help you and save some money on boxes. Many pros also suggested diversifying how you look for boxes. Buying new boxes can be pricy and wasteful, since you're not going to keep them when you're done with all this. Instead, ask local shops if you can have some of their boxes. Grocery and liquor stores, for instance, always have a bunch. Just make sure they're strong and clean. One thing you can't finagle a workaround on: tape. Chica cautions against buying cheap tape, as "you'll regret it when a box or bag breaks open mid-move." Rimeris agrees: "Heavy-duty tape, a marker you can actually read, and clean, strong boxes are worth every penny." That said, he assures me you don't need "pre-made kits or expensive wardrobe boxes," so feel free to ignore expensive moving-supply marketing tactics. Decide whether to hire movers or ask your buddiesMovers are great, especially if you have particularly valuable items, a lot of furniture, or a big journey ahead of you. There are other ways to transport your items, however.Consider enlisting some pals for the big move. Promise pizza and beer or straight-up cash if your friends will help you haul your stuff. They care about you and probably charge less than real movers—but you should also keep in mind that you might also get what you pay for, here.“Honestly, if you can afford movers, get movers,” said Shannon Palus, a Brooklyn-based writer and editor who has moved more than a dozen times in her life and managed her most recent move for less than $60. “It is really, really nice to have people move your things. I think if you are going the U-Haul-and-friends route, hire someone from a service like Task Rabbit to help with the heavier stuff. I think any money you can spend on moving, you should. They say that you’re supposed to spend money on experiences to be happy, right? Spending your day doing something other than lifting boxes is the ultimate good experience.”There are ways to compromise here, though. You can hire movers for the big, expensive stuff and hoof it with your friends for the small, cheap stuff. Palus pointed out, too, that her most recent move cost less than $60 because she used ride-sharing apps to hail cars and only had small items to move. “Be communicative about it, allow [the driver] to decline, and tip really well,” she said. “I also don’t move everything via Lyft; I do some trips on the subway.If you decide to go for movers, get a written estimate from a few different places. These should outline services, fees, and timing, says Beller. You can even request an itemized estimate upfront to avoid surprise fees. Just be sure you're being honest when you share your half of the details. Don't hide that you live in a walk-up, for instance, or own heavy antique furniture. You're only setting yourself up for surprise fees that way. Schedule smartlyYou don't always get to pick when we move, especially if you're moving from rental to rental. That said, if you can, try to schedule your move for off-peak times. Kris Kay, director of operations at UNITS Moving and Portable Storage, says you can usually get lower rates by moving mid-week or mid-month. The summer is the most expensive month for moving because it's the most common time, too, so if you have any wiggle room there, aim for spring or fall. Protect your security depositThere are a few benefits to packing and moving a little on your own before movers show up. Not only do you save money by doing some of your own labor, but you have a chance to scope out your place as you disassemble furniture and box up your stuff. If you're a renter, you'll want to try and get your security deposit back, which means cleaning the inside and outside of appliances, wiping down bathroom fixtures and floors, and, of course, fixing any damage. If the damage is minor, try to do it on your own: Patch small holes from picture frames and wall mounts, remove scuffs from walls and floors, and tighten any loose screws. As Chica says, "A minor fix can end up pitting a pretty decent dent in your security deposit."When you're moving, take care not to cause damage, too. Chica says you should never drag furniture. That's only asking for trouble. When everything is removed from the space, document the condition of the unit with photographs.

You are the data center Where hyperscale hardware goes to retire: Ars visits a very big ITAD site Watching memory DIMMs get sorted like Wonka children inside SK TES' facility. Kevin Purdy – May 26, 2025 7:30 am | 9 A worker at SK TES' Fredericksburg, Va. facility, processing incoming gear. Credit: SK TES A worker at SK TES' Fredericksburg, Va. facility, processing incoming gear. Credit: SK TES Story text Size Small Standard Large Width * Standard Wide Links Standard Orange * Subscribers only   Learn more "The biggest risk is data escape." Eric Ingebretsen, chief commercial officer at SK TES, an IT asset disposition provider, tells me this early on during a tour of a 128,000-square-foot facility in Fredericksburg, Virginia. He will restate this a few times. A big part of this site's pitch to its clients, including the "hyperscale" customers with gigantic data centers nearby, is that each device is labeled, tracked, and inventoried for its drives—both obvious and hidden—and is either securely wiped or destroyed. The process, commonly called ITAD, is used by larger businesses, especially when they upgrade fleets of servers or workers' devices. ITAD providers ensure all the old gear is wiped clean, then resold, repurposed, recycled, or destroyed. In keeping with the spirit of client confidentiality, I could not take photos or videos during my visit, record our talks, or capture anything beyond what I could scribble in my notepad. (The images in this post are provided by SK TES and were not taken during my visit). I did, however, see some intriguing things and learn about what happens to all the drives and rack-mounted gear we call "the cloud" once anything gets more than a few years old. Undocumented drives: The tiny terror The loading docks at SK's facility are essentially divided into two: one section for the hyperscalers and one for everything else. SK is discreet about its clients, but given its northern Virginia location, you can make some guesses about some of the online-selling, search-result-providing, software-providing firms this site is servicing. Pallets arrive in big, shrink-wrapped squares, as tall as my shoulders, with break-once security seals. Each device has its serial number assigned to an asset tag, one that will follow that unit through the whole facility. Laptops and desktops head to a retail station on a long roller line. At that spot, workers—the kind exceedingly familiar with all the BIOS startup keys—run an automated Blancco system to reset them at the firmware level. Workers sometimes have to dig deeper, like getting into a switch or router with SSH or undoing a RAID setup to enable programmed wiping. Inside the laptop/desktop examination bay at SK TES's Fredericksburg, Va. site. Credit: SK tes Inside the laptop/desktop examination bay at SK TES's Fredericksburg, Va. site. Credit: SK tes The details of each unit—CPU, memory, HDD size—are taken down and added to the asset tag, and the device is sent on to be physically examined. This step is important because "many a concealed drive finds its way into this line," Kent Green, manager of this site, told me. Inside the machines coming from big firms, there are sometimes little USB, SD, SATA, or M.2 drives hiding out. Some were make-do solutions installed by IT and not documented, and others were put there by employees tired of waiting for more storage. "Some managers have been pretty surprised when they learn what we found," Green said. With everything wiped and with some sense of what they're made of, each device gets a rating. It's a three-character system, like "A-3-6," based on function, cosmetic condition, and component value. Based on needs, trends, and other data, devices that are cleared for resale go to either wholesale, retail, component harvesting, or scrap. Full-body laptop skins Wiping down and prepping a laptop, potentially for a full-cover adhesive skin. Credit: SK TES Wiping down and prepping a laptop, potentially for a full-cover adhesive skin. Credit: SK TES If a device has retail value, it heads into a section of this giant facility where workers do further checks. Automated software plays sounds on the speakers, checks that every keyboard key is sending signals, and checks that laptop batteries are at 80 percent capacity or better. At the end of the line is my favorite discovery: full-body laptop skins. Some laptops—certain Lenovo, Dell, and HP models—are so ubiquitous in corporate fleets that it's worth buying an adhesive laminating sticker in their exact shape. They're an uncanny match for the matte black, silver, and slightly less silver finishes of the laptops, covering up any blemishes and scratches. Watching one of the workers apply this made me jealous of their ability to essentially reset a laptop's condition (so one could apply whole new layers of swag stickers, of course). Once rated, tested, and stickered, laptops go into a clever "cradle" box, get the UN 3481 "battery inside" sticker, and can be sold through retail. 5,632 HDDs at once Beyond these folks are some of the more than 5,000 HDD wiping bays (black, with all the wires running to them) at the SK TES facility. Credit: SK TES Beyond these folks are some of the more than 5,000 HDD wiping bays (black, with all the wires running to them) at the SK TES facility. Credit: SK TES That includes buyers of reconditioned hard drives, and boy, are there a lot of drives moving through this site. Once a drive is verified through its SMART data to be worth grading and refurbishing, it's put into one of more than two dozen wiping bays, each holding about 192 drives (with a special bay handling some M.2 and other non-HDD sizes). If the bays were completely full, 5,632 drives could be wiped concurrently. The month before I visited, the site had processed about 58,000 drives, according to Ingebretsen. There are also stacks and stacks of memory and CPUs in this non-retail corner of the site. I walked by one box labeled "SR1Y5" (i.e., Intel Xeon E5-2676 v3 chips), and he confirmed there were 3,600 units inside. The RoboFlex II. This baby weighs 35 pounds, has Good and Bad bins, and whips sticks around at remarkable speed. Credit: SimmTester The RoboFlex II. This baby weighs 35 pounds, has Good and Bad bins, and whips sticks around at remarkable speed. Credit: SimmTester Nearby, in the memory-testing section, I find the memory machine that will stick in my own memory the rest of my life: the RoboFlex-II Handler. You drop RAM DIMMs or SODIMMs into one of its two bays, and it tests the pins on each stick. Each stick is rated "Good" or "Bad" and kicked in the appropriate direction by a 90-PSI air blast. I asked the workers at this station if they think about the entirely relevant scene from Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory. They do, and quite often. Where does all this stuff go? SK TES sells retail devices like laptops, desktops, and mobile devices through its "Stock Must Go" brand on eBay and elsewhere. Chips and memory are typically bought up by laboratories, crypto miners, data centers, and a lot of high-volume overseas customers. There are steady enterprise customers for the drives, usually putting them back into datacenters. It's something like $2.5 million in sales each month, an SK TES representative told me. Big data, and only getting bigger The other business—the thing that makes ITAD "disposition" instead of just "refurbishing"—is dismantling and handing off devices for shredding. The Financial Times has reported that Amazon and Microsoft have 100 percent data shredding policies, with Google also shredding much of its drive turnover. The US National Renewable Energy Laboratory estimated in 2022 that by 2025, roughly 50 million end-of-life data center drives would be shredded every year. ITAD businesses like SK TES make the pitch that companies can create revenue to reinvest in operations through offering gear for refurbishment. SK TES representatives told me that most of the Virginia site's customers are "focused on reuse," while "a small portion" of equipment is shredded and sent off-site to be recycled. The site, built on the guts of a mattress factory, was put up specifically to handle the high volumes of server racks and HDDs coming in from data centers. It has a staff of 165, though it fluctuates a bit between big server hauls and downtime. The full-fledged site had been open one year when I visited. The biggest challenge, Ingebretsen told me, was getting power everywhere it needed to go inside the facility as volume fluctuated and needs expanded. Data centers are massive and growing, to the point of creating entire sub-industries that employ dozens of people to handle their tech turnover. The Northern Virginia Technology Council industry group puts this region's data center growth at 500 percent between 2015 and 2023, and it continues, though some pushback is happening. Many data centers were accessed to allow me to navigate to SK TES's site via Apple Maps and write this post, and for you to read it. It reminds me of the adage—made popular by the CEO of GPS maker TomTom—that you are not stuck in traffic, you are the traffic. After my tour, I got my phone back from security, talked a bit with Ingebretsen, then headed out to my car. I spent a few minutes jotting down the most notable things I'd seen inside, then looked up and out the windshield. There was a black tarp wrapped around a chain-link fence of the lot next door, with logos announcing the construction of a new data center. Data centers are everywhere—and nowhere in particular. Kevin Purdy Senior Technology Reporter Kevin Purdy Senior Technology Reporter Kevin is a senior technology reporter at Ars Technica, covering open-source software, PC gaming, home automation, repairability, e-bikes, and tech history. He has previously worked at Lifehacker, Wirecutter, iFixit, and Carbon Switch. 9 Comments