Real-Time Processing
Processing data or transactions immediately as they occur, enabling instant responses and up-to-date information.
In-Depth Explanation
Real-time processing handles data or transactions immediately as they occur, without deliberate delay. It enables instant responses, live dashboards, and up-to-date business operations.
Real-time characteristics:
- Immediate: Processed as received
- Event-driven: Triggered by events
- Low latency: Minimal delay
- Continuous: Always processing
Types of "real-time":
- Hard real-time: Strict timing guarantees
- Soft real-time: Best effort, low latency
- Near real-time: Seconds to minutes delay
Real-time applications:
- Customer-facing transactions
- Live dashboards
- Fraud detection
- Inventory updates
- Chat and notifications
- IoT data processing
Technologies:
- Message queues (Kafka, RabbitMQ)
- Stream processing (Spark Streaming, Flink)
- Event-driven architecture
Business Context
Real-time processing enables responsive customer experiences, timely decisions, and operational agility in fast-moving business environments.
How Clever Ops Uses This
We implement real-time processing for Australian businesses where immediacy matters, from customer transactions to operational dashboards.
Example Use Case
"Real-time inventory updates: when a customer purchases online, inventory is immediately decremented, available-to-promise updated, and low-stock alerts triggered."