Real-Time Processing

What is real-time processing?

Real-time data is incredibly important to businesses, providing tremendous insights from data sets being processed in real-time. Enterprise organizations benefit dramatically from real-time data, as the insights produced can enhance operations, boost monitoring and visibility for IT architecture, optimize business outcomes, and even improve overall customer experiences.

Real-time processing has benefits across all industries in today’s markets. With a growing focus on Big Data, this system of processing and acquiring insights can drive enterprises to new levels of achievement.

Some real-world applications of real-time processing are found in banking systems, data streaming, customer service structures, and weather radars. Without real-time processing, these industries would not be possible or would deeply lack accuracy.

For example, weather radar heavily relies on the real-time insights provided by this data processing system. Due to the sheer volume of data that is being collected by supercomputers to study weather interactions and predictions, real-time processing is critical to successful interpretation. 

The three methods of data processing are mechanical, manual, and electronic. Each method is effective and necessary within given applications, with varying benefits to each system.

• Mechanical data processing: Mechanical data processing occurs through machines or devices including calculators, printing presses, typewriters, or other mechanical means. The benefit to this method lies in minimized errors, however it has quickly become unrealistic in today’s data landscape. There is no reasonable way for it to maintain pace with the sheer volume of data being acquired, studied, and processed. With increasing data volume comes greater complexity, making this method better in simple, low-volume applications.
• Manual data processing: Manual data processing involves acquiring and sorting with direct human participation. It requires logical rigor and disregards the use of any automated systems or software. Although this method is economical, making it an attractive choice for small or new businesses, it can lead to frequent errors due to the human element.
• Electronic data processing: Electronic data processing utilizes modern technologies and processing programs. It requires the most initial expenditure, as it involves procuring all the technology necessary to build an effective data architecture. Essentially, the software runs all processing tasks on demand and produces corresponding insights. This is the most accurate form of data processing.