Stream Processing with Continuous SQL Explained.

During the technology boom of the last two decades, a trend has come into focus: data is the lifeblood of a modern company and nearly every company is, essentially, a data company. Organizations have realized that investing in data systems and infrastructure can make them more competitive in their marketplaces and allow for new exciting innovations.

In the last few years, this paradigm has exploded as it has become clear that streaming, or real-time, data has more value than data-at-rest. Organizations can add streaming data systems to their arsenal and massively boost their ability to provide highly differentiated, competitive, and compelling user experiences.

Overlapping this trend is the popularity to generate data using machines with cloud computing. The Internet of Things is an obvious example, but lesser known is the trend to instrument everything in your business-every web click, visitor session, page view, purchase, interaction, chat message, all of it. In 1995, companies stored who the customer was and what they purchased. In 2020, companies store every single interaction they have with the business-from the manufacturing of the product to data being generated as the product is used. In fact, companies are being created because of streaming data, and without it, they wouldn’t exist.