Data Gets Moving in Real-time, Like Never Before
The agility required during the pandemic was a baptism of fire for many organizations in the Asia Pacific region. Having to change operations and business models more quickly than their well-worn legacy software would allow exposed significant gaps between IT systems.
There is a clear and pressing need to get data “in motion” and at speed, to deliver the real-time insights craved by business leaders, employees and, most of all, the customers they serve. When data gets moving, it can bring with it some of the biggest technology force-multipliers to shape the medium and long-term future of business – from supply chain disruptions, decentralized finance, through to the metaverse.
As a result, businesses are looking at how they can best stream data “events” across their organization, whether that be customer requests, inventory updates, sensor readings…the works. It’s from this that I base my three predictions for IT software development trends in the coming years.
Data goes from static to fluid
In 2022 and beyond, moving data in real-time between increasingly distributed application architectures will be a high priority. Leading edge industries looking to exploit real-time movement of data include financial services, retail, and manufacturing – all industries where automation, APIs and IoT technologies are converging.
This necessitates the adoption of an event-driven architecture (EDA) for software development. Organizations that wish to meet the real-time demands of our modern economy can no longer rely solely on synchronous APIs for integration due to their fragility and scalability limitations.
EDA enables data to be moved in real-time event streams via an “event mesh”, helping link together previously unconnected processes across business running multiple siloed systems. An “event mesh” provides a configurable and dynamic infrastructure layer for distributing events among decoupled applications, cloud services and devices. Recent research confirms this need – a global study of C-Suite and IT architecture professionals found that 85% of organizations are looking to incorporate real-time data and EDA into their operations.
5G multiplies the data flow
Data flows – data that moves in real-time across an increasingly complex environment – are vital to protect business processes against challenges such as supply chain disruption. During the pandemic, we’ve seen the heightened need for smart inventory management, goods tracking and supply chain optimization, all of which rely heavily on the essential flow of data.
The data underpinning these processes is wide and all-encompassing. Think location, weather, order status, the whole lead to cash, and source to pay process. All of this is becoming real-time and connected as event streams.
Enter 5G. If we combine this event-driven infrastructure with quicker connectivity advancements such as 5G, we see the potential for richer data to move quickly over an event mesh, between processes such as eCommerce, CX, warehouses, plants, transport and logistics, and business insights and reporting – all in real-time.
Statistics indicate that 5G increases data rates from 1GB/second to 20GB/second, increases data traffic from 7.2 exabytes/month to 50 exabytes/month and reduces latency from 10ms to <1ms.
Everyone involved in a supply chain, from finance to manufacturing and distribution and critically, the end-customer, will become more cohesive and connected via real-time streams.
E-commerce innovations in the metaverse
I see customer experiences heading into the metaverse, with retail interactions, for example, taking place over 3D, virtual or augmented reality environments. In the next few years, how do you think we will buy a new pair of sunglasses, or the latest dress or shoes online? Your avatar will roam in a virtual mall in 3D, try items on in 3D and pay, all with the click of a button or a tap on a smart device. Welcome to the Metaverse, where research corroborates 66% of consumers say they are particularly interested in using AR.
Granted, we are still in the Nokia 3310 era of virtual reality at the moment; the smartphone form factor is probably around five years away! But the common theme will be movement data at speed to support such next-gen metaverse interactions – and the key enabler in making this happen is event-driven architecture.
McKinsey believes there is more to be done to address the digital divide in customer experiences, and data will be at the core of this change: “With the rise of big data and predictive analytics, companies can now build a customer-management capability that is holistic, predictive, prioritized, and value-focused.”
The metaverse (or Omniverse) by definition cannot be static and non-reactive or disconnected from the real physical world. It needs to be a 3D digital twin of the real world. It needs to be connected in real-time with other meta verses and the real world; it needs to be in motion. It needs an event driven architecture and a real-time event mesh to support it.
Data flows throughout business advancements
The core development underpinning the business developments into the near and far future is moving data at speed. Data is only going to get richer and increase in volume. Being able to move critical data will be key to business adaptability as we continue to see fragmented global supply chains creaking and more online interactions between brands and end-customers.
And all that’s before we enter a new age of customer interactions in the metaverse!
This article was written by Sumeet Puri, the Chief Technology Solutions Officer at Solace. The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of CDOTrends.
Image credit: iStockphoto/natrot
