Real-Time Use Cases Enabled by the Database of Now
Blog: Jim Sinur
While we all know that real-time applications and analytics are constrained to respond in the order of microseconds, real-time systems have been difficult to justify and attain until recently. There is a whole new class of real-time analytics that are now open to more organizations and applications with the advent of “The Database of Now.” This blog investigates some of the new and emerging uses and is meant to give the reader some real-world examples. Hopefully, this list of successful uses will inspire others to follow suit, mainly where real-time dashboards and analytics deliver significant benefits.
Real-Time was for Special Applications
Real-time computing started with operating systems and then only a handful of applications because of specialized software costs. The first implementations revolved around real-time networks and market-driven applications where results demanded no significant delays or instant results. Real-time was an excellent fit for physical systems that need instant responses like fly-by-wire or ABS brakes or single purpose-focused applications. These use cases required extreme correctness, deep concurrency, and durable stability while being distributed and sometimes autonomous. Real-time was a limited set of applications and systems until recently.
What Has Changed?
Business drivers require more speed. It used to be good enough for businesses to have dashboards that were relatively up to date. Now that kind of speed is not acceptable even if applications aren’t hooked up to devices on the internet’s edge (IoT). Almost all the leaders of business-focused software organizations believe that speed is the new currency of business. We are in an era of extreme competition and dynamic adaptability. Those organizations that can handle emerging trends by sensing them, making rapid decisions, and implementing fast are the ones that will emerge as the winners as long as they consider the voice of the customer and other constituents. Savvy organizations will switch from reactive to proactive by planning alternatives, practicing them, and put in listening posts for an emergent change.
Technology enablers have been emerging to meet the need at a lower cost and broader use cases. It started with complex events processing’s ability to sense signals, events, and patterns of interest and even respond in limited situations. And now, fast forward to today, and we see the accelerating trend of adapting to real-time applications with the mainstream use of streaming data. Ventana research states that more than 50% of enterprises will leverage real-time streaming data in their enterprise next year. It reaches full bloom now with databases that can handle various kinds of complex monster data in the cloud-managed as a single logical store rather than multiple special-purpose datastores, greatly simplifying and accelerating data delivery. Organizations simplify the complexity that revolves around data location, meaning, and transformation connected to the smart IoT, often embedded in Industry 4.0 solutions facilitated thus increased speed.
Sample List of Successful New Real-Time Use Cases
They are listed in no particular order with common uses highlighted in bold text. All industries will have emergent situations that will cry out for real-time assists.
- FinTech
- Portfolio Management & Analytics
- Fraud Detection
- Algorithmic Trading, Crypto Exchange
- Dashboards & APIs
- Software & SaaS
- Improved CX for Internet Services
- Supply Chain Visibility
- Machine Learning Pipelines & Platforms
- Dashboards & APIs
- Media & Communications
- Ad Optimization & Ad Serving
- Streaming Media Quality Analytics
- Video Game Telemetry Processing
- Network Telemetry & Analytics
- Energy
- IoT & Smart Meter Analytics
- Predictive Maintenance
- Geospatial Tracking & Calculations
- Dashboards & APIs
Net; Net:
While there are many more industry examples not listed here, the evidence is clear that it is time to rethink real-time utilization. The Database of Now has lowered the hurdles keeping organizations from leveraging real-time implementations. This is especially true of dashboards, analytics, and other transparency rich situations. If you need to know about the status of work or outcomes on the spot and right now, you should be considering the real-time use cases that the Database of Now enables. Real-time is for everybody now, so start planning and preparing for new competitive implementations.
Additional Reading:
Corporate Performance in Real-Time
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