Could inroads to outside data and machine learning computing capabilities let modest-sized companies market to customers like an eBay Inc. or Amazon.com?

They can, according to Alex Sadovsky (pictured), director of data science at Oracle Data Cloud. ODC is combining data from Oracle Corp. and other sources with Apache Spark’s machine learning data analytics engine to help businesses both expand and hone their advertising, Sadovsky stated during the Data Platforms event in Litchfield Park, Arizona.

“They come in with a thousand of their [customers’ data]; we see how those thousand customers rank up against every single household in the United States,” he told Jeff Frick (@JeffFrick) and George Gilbert (@ggilbert41), co-hosts of theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s mobile live streaming studio. (* Disclosure below.)

ODC achieves this through a multi-pronged pooling strategy. First, OCD draws on the expertise of the five recently acquired startups it comprises, including the BlueKai data management platform and Moat digital ad measurement tool.

These technologies work on data that customers provide, as well as data from a host of other sources, including many from within Oracle. (Oracle has a ton of brick and mortar retail data, which is key, since people still make 80 to 90 percent of their purchases offline, according to Sadovsky.)

Data-to-ad conveyor belt

Based on customers’ input and requests (“I want to figure out who’s going to buy a minivan in California next month,” Sadovsky said as an example), ODC parses the data — not with human eyeballs, but with Spark’s machine learning capabilities.

“Spark considers machine learning kind of a first-class citizen, and since that’s essentially what our business is, we go 100 percent into Spark,” he said, adding that this is why they switched over from Apache Hive data software.

On customers’ behalf, ODC acts on insights and funnels them into digital ads on various websites and platforms, Sadovsky explained. “We actually are interfaced with companies like Facebook and Twitter directly,” he said.

Watch the complete video interview below, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s independent editorial coverage of Data Platforms 2017. (* Disclosure: TheCUBE is a paid media partner for Data Platforms 2017. Neither Qubole Inc. nor other sponsors have editorial influence on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

Photo: SiliconANGLE