Real-Time Processing Explained: Benefits, Use Cases & Tools

“The amount of data dealt with in the worlwide society will expand explosively by a factor of 200.”

Big Data is flooding everywhere, and companies require systems to analyze and understand this data as soon as they acquire it.

Achieving a high rate of Data Ingestion, Data Processing, and the display of data for analysis requires the use of Real-time Processing Systems. 

In this quick-start guide, we cover all the aspects of Real-time Data Processing. We will discuss the benefits, architecture, and use cases of real time data processing, Stream Processing (also known as Real-time Streaming Analytics), and lastly discuss Batch vs Real-time Processing.

What Is Data Processing?

• When you process data, you convert the acquired data into a usable form so that it’s easier to analyze and draw conclusions. In most companies, data scientists and engineers are often in charge of gathering and translating this data.
• Companies all around the globe employ Digital or Electronic Data Processing Methods, often known as EDP, to process data using machines, computers, workstations, servers, modems, and processing software programs.
• These tools generate outputs in the form of graphs, charts, images, tables, audio, video extensions, vector files, and other desired formats such that it becomes absorbable for everyone.
• On the whole, Data Processing is a six-step process that involves raw data collection, preparation, sorting, processing analysis, output, and storage.
• If you would like to have a deep dive into these six stages of Data Processing, we have covered them separately in this guide – What is Data Processing? – A Comprehensive Guide.

Real-Time Processing: The Foundation of AI-Driven Decisions

Real-time processing, as the name suggests, involves analyzing data as it is generated, producing results almost immediately. This capability is crucial for businesses and organizations across various sectors, from finance and e-commerce to healthcare and manufacturing.

Key Characteristics of Real-Time Processing:

• Continuous Data Flow: Relies on a constant, uninterrupted stream of data flowing into the system.
• Low Latency: Minimizes the time delay between data generation and the generation of insights.
• Immediate Output: Provides quick responses and actions based on the analyzed data.
• Timely Insights: Delivers up-to-the-minute insights into current trends, patterns, and anomalies.

How Does Real-Time Processing Differ from Batch Processing?

Batch Processing: Collects data over a period of time and processes it in batches at a later point.

Real-Time Processing: Analyzes data as it arrives, providing immediate insights and enabling rapid responses.

Feature	Real-Time Processing	Batch Processing
Processing Time	Immediate	Delayed
Latency	Low	High
Data Flow	Continuous	Periodic
Resource Usage	Resource-intensive	Less resource-intensive
Use Cases	Fraud detection, real-time recommendations, autonomous vehicles	Data warehousing, nightly reports, data backups

Real-Time Data Processing Advantages

Here are the advantages offered by Real-time Data Processing Systems:

• Immediate Updating of Databases & Immediate Responses to User Inquiries: Since there are no delays in processing, Real-time Processing Systems ensure timely action.
• Up-to-Date Applications: For scenarios, where you require a high frequency of changes to your applications, Real-time Processing ensures that new records are synchronized in a short time.
• Breakneck Speed: With Real-time Systems, you receive rapid data loading and storage capabilities, allowing you to churn your data and draw insights quickly.
• Accurate Information: Your data is never out of date. Everything is current and correct when it is done in real-time.
• Business Agility: Enabling faster and smarter responses to a changing business environment is easy when you have up-to-date data to match the market’s urgency and customers’ shifting preferences.
• Quick Detection of Operational Issues: Real-time reports keep you posted on your current business operations for quick detection of bottlenecks and pertaining issues.

Real-Time Processing Architecture

A Real-time Data Processing Architecture comprises the following four components:

• Real-time Message Ingestion: Message ingestion systems ingest incoming streams of data or messages from a variety of sources to be consumed by a Stream Processing Consumer. This service might be built as a simple data store that stores new messages in a folder. However, in many cases, a Message Broker is required to function as a buffer for the messages, which can support scale-out processing and reliable message delivery.

For more information on some of the most popular Message Broker Platforms, visit our helpful guide – Popular Message Broker Platforms for 2022.

• Stream Processing: Stream processors process the ingested messages by performing data processing operations such as filtering and aggregation or preparing them for data analysis.
• Analytical Data Store: Analytical Data Store specializes in big-data preparation and management. They prepare data for analysis before serving it in a structured manner so that it can be queried using analytical software. Analytical Data Stores are also optimized for quick query response times and advanced analytics. 
• Analysis and Reporting: The final step in Real-time Data Processing is to prepare charts, reports, or graphs and provide actionable insights that are readily available and comprehensible to all.

What is Batch Processing?

• Batch Processing, as the name suggests, is the processing of data in bulk. Batch Processing, instead of working in real-time, collects transactions over some time and schedules their processing at some later point.
• Post-processing, it displays the results to a software application or a system from which data scientists, analysts, or engineers can analyze data to make sound decisions. 
• Unlike Real-time Processing, Batch Processing is characterized by more operational flexibility and a slower reaction to changing market conditions.
• A simple example to help you understand how Batch Processing works is when you use washing machines.
  • To wash clothes in a washing machine, you would wait for a cloth pile to build up and then wash your clothes. This mode of operation saves you operational costs and is an efficient way to process your business data.

Pros of Batch Processing

• Involve simple systems that don’t require special hardware or system support.
• Efficient processing of large volumes of data.
• Works offline.
• Capabilities like automation and minimal user involvement.
• Low maintenance.

Cons of Batch Processing

• Limited in scope and capability.
• No real-time updates.
• Debugging Batch Processing systems is complex.
• May require dedicated staff to handle issues.

Real-Time Processing vs Batch Processing

Aligning all of our understanding of real-time processing and batch processing in one table, we get this contrast:

Parameter	Real-time Processing	Batch Processing
Time Frame	Real-time systems have predictable response times. They ingest and process transactions in order of milliseconds.	Batch Processing record transactions and process them at a specified interval.
Processor Availability	Real-time Data Processing demands no time delays, and therefore the processor has to be responsive at all times.	Batch Processing schedules the processing of transactions, so the processor needs to be only available when there is a requirement.
Orientation	Real-time Processing is action or event-oriented.	Batch Processing is measurement-oriented.
Data Handling Capacity	Real-time Data Processing is useful for modest volumes of data. Processing large data volumes requires a significant amount of computation time and processing capability.	Batch Processing is used for large volumes of data.
Resources Involved	Real-time Processing needs high computer architecture and high hardware specifications.	Batch Processing can work with normal computer specifications.
Costs of Implementation	Real-time Stream Processing is complex and costly. It requires a unique combination of hardware and software to deliver speedy outputs.	Batch Processing is the simplest processing method for business applications. It is economical as well.
Maintenance	Real-time Stream Processing is an intricate setup that requires daily updates and backup solutions to regularly receive and supply data.	Batch Processing is less intricate and easy to manage compared to Real-time Stream Processing.
Examples	ATM TransactionsData StreamingIoT Sensor or Radar SystemsCustomer Service Systems	Processing of PayrollsCreation of Billing CyclesCustomer OrdersCredit Card Transactions

Use Cases of Real-Time Data Processing & Analytics

Business Operations

• Real-time Systems provide your business with strategic insights in the areas of Finance, Sales, Marketing, and Customer Service, allowing you to run your back-office activities as efficiently as possible.
• Real-time Analytics aids in the detection of faults and the reduction of operational risks that might jeopardize your business operations. 

Financial Trading

• Inherent to traders is the ability to forecast stock price rises and falls. If you don’t, you’ll lose money.
• Your business’ Financial Analysts and Traders who have access to Real-time Analytics can benefit from the most up-to-date information on financial market circumstances.
• To acquire a wide perspective on the market, they can sync and receive data from news, weather reports, databases, and social media. This viewpoint will help them make the greatest and most informed trading decisions possible.

Customer Support

• Real-time Systems synchronize your customer interactions and their experiences. Because your Support Team is in sync with your customer engagements, they can start up where the discussion left off.
• This kind of attention to customer queries produces a good impression of the business and lays the groundwork for a stronger and more loyal customer base.

Marketing Campaigns

• Using Real-time Data Processing, your Marketing Teams get direct access to the frequency of clients’ purchases in their Marketing Automation Solution.
• They can create more powerful campaigns and practical roadmaps, using the information on users’ app usage, location, age, job title, and a variety of other parameters.
• This approach targets your audience correctly and helps create engaging customer experiences. 

Sales Initiatives

• Using Real-time Data Processing, your Sales Reps can extract data about interested prospects, operationalize it in their Salesforce/HubSpot customer database, and contact them on time.
• This increases your sales and boosts conversions, in turn helping drive more revenue to your business.

What Is Stream Processing?

• Stream Processing is a Big Data technique that involves ingesting a continuous data stream and analyzing, filtering, transforming, or improving the data in real time. 
• Real-time Stream Processing systems have time constraints associated with processing data as it flows through the system from source to destination. 
• A Stream Processing System is made up of a number of modules that work in parallel and communicate through channels.
• These modules can be Source Capturing (passing data from a source into the system), Filters (doing atomic actions on the data), or Sinks (that either consumes the data or pass it out of the system).
• Stream Processing Tools and Technologies come in several forms, including Distributed Publish-Subscribe Messaging Systems like Kafka, Distributed Real-time Computing systems like Apache Storm, and Streaming Data Flow Engines like Apache Flink.

Tools For Real-Time Processing

• Real-time Data Processing has set its foot in many industries, and it’s continuing to spread its roots in many more.
• As the field of Real-time Stream Processing and Real-time Analytics is developing, and the need for Real-time Operationalization in businesses, more and more tools are coming into the market to make business operations easier. 
• Real-time Data Processing Solutions help companies launch more successful Marketing Campaigns, better their Sales, and allow their products and services to reach a wider audience.
• Handling modest volumes of data and being able to generate actionable insights quickly is one of the many advantages Real-time Data Processing Solutions come with.
• These solutions make it easier to integrate Real-time Data (RTD) into your system so that your data can be processed and evaluated in Business Intelligence or Real-time Data Analysis Systems.
• As a result, the solutions must be reliable in their operation and respond quickly and accurately. There are a variety of options on the list, including
  • Apache Kafka
  • Apache Spark
  • Apache Flink
  • Amazon Kinesis
  • Azure Stream Analytics
  • Google Cloud Dataflow
  • RabbitMQ, and many more.

To gain in-depth knowledge about these tools and their comparison, you can visit Best Data Stream Processing Systems for 2022.

Challenges to Real-Time Processing

Real-time Processing faces two big challenges:

• High-Volume Rapid Ingestion: The ability to process data in real-time at a rapid pace is possible only for modest volumes of data. Ingesting, processing, and storing large volumes of data in real-time is a difficult undertaking, which must be implemented in such a way that there is no congestion in Data Ingestion Pipeline. Moreover, the Data Store must also support high-volume writes to be able to process data quickly.
• Speedy Analytics (also called Operational Analytics): The capacity to create Business Intelligence in real-time is the second barrier when deploying Real-time Processing Systems. Real-time Systems must create alerts or reports in real-time for business employees as soon as data from the source becomes accessible so that they can take action quickly.

Learn More About:

• MongoDB to BigQuery
• Real Time Anomaly Detection

Conclusion

• You might think of Real-time Data Processing as a lucrative option for your business. However, choosing the right method of data processing, for the most part, depends on your business requirements.
• In some cases, you might prefer a cost-effective batching approach for effective Data Processing where your operational systems don’t need real-time sync. 
• In other cases, or when you are working in banking, networking, or cybersecurity, Real-time Data Processing is the option you should go for. 
• For most companies, establishing a Single Source of Truth (SSOT) and Real-time Data Migration capabilities between applications is also crucial.
• While building an in-house Data Pipeline Solution can get demanding, Hevo Data comes to simplify all your Data Transfer and Data Transformation needs. 

Sign up for a 14-day free trial and simplify your data integration process. Check out the pricing details to understand which plan fulfills all your business needs.

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