In today‘s hypercompetitive economy, making accurate decisions faster than your rivals separated the industry leaders from the laggards. However, with data siloed across disconnected systems, decision makers struggle get a unified view for timely action. This is where the innovative approach of Complex Event Processing (CEP) comes in.
According to leading research firm IDC, global data volumes are expected to grow exponentially – from 33 zettabytes in 2018 to 175 zettabytes by 2025! Furthermore, the pace of change has accelerated like never before. In this dynamic environment, the winners will be those harness real-time intelligence about opportunities and risksHIDDEN in data. This is exactly what CEP empowers your business to do!
So what exactly is complex event processing? At first glance, it may seem intimidating. But in reality, CEP provides a smarter way for you to achieve digital transformation objectives – from boosting efficiency to delivering superior customer experiences.
In this comprehensive guide, we will gently unravel the world of CEP so you can evaluate how to best leverage it across your organization.
Deciphering Complex Event Processing
Complex event processing, abbreviated as CEP, combines data from multiple sources to infer events of significance which require immediate action. It analyzes torrents of incoming data in real-time to identify threats or opportunities.
Let‘s breakdown the key concepts:
Events: Anything happening across systems, processes and devices can be an event – like transactions, trades, sensor readings, machine failures etc.
Complex events: These are high-level events representing a meaningful situation that requires a decision or response. Complex events are derived by correlating and contextualizing lower-level events.
For example, thousands of individual transactions could signify an overall sales growth trend (complex event) in a region.
Processing: Specialized CEP software utilizes sophisticated techniques to intake, combine, analyze and contextualize events across dispersed data streams in real-time or near real-time.
Put simply, CEP enables continuous intelligence to drive decisions and actions by providing right insights at the right time!
Inside Complex Event Processing Engines
The magic of CEP happens in the complex event processing engine which ingests multitudes of event data streaming in from various sources simultaneously. Powered by scale-out architectures leveraging technologies like parallel computing, these engines can handle enormous data velocity and volume.
Leading CEP platforms like TIBCO Streambase, IBM InfoSphere Streams, Informatica RulePoint and SQLStream bluster specialized engines to:
– Detect complex event patterns in real-time data feeds using sophisticated analytics models and rules. For instance, a security operations center tracks millions of digital signatures to uncover targeted attack.
– Trigger alerts when priority events are uncovered to initiate automated responses like shutting down compromised systems.
– Forecast adverse events by applying predictive models on both historical and real-time data to minimize disruption. For example, supply chain analytics predicts outages.
– Visualize insights via management dashboards plotting key metrics derived from low-latency event processing.
Key Techniques Powering CEP
Advanced techniques integrated into CEP platforms enable them to process millions of events per second to uncover valuable complex events. Let‘s discuss the core techniques:
Event Abstraction: Summarizing numerous low-level events into a higher-level event more meaningful for business. For instance, a flurry of shopping cart adds and purchases signal a hot sales trend.
Event Filtering: Eliminating irrelevant events via parameters like type, source systems, attributes etc. Reduces data noise for faster processing.
Event Pattern Detection: Applying correlation rules across event data to uncover temporal sequences and combinations indicating urgent situations needing intervention.
Event Data Modeling: Structuring event data into conceptual layers(device failure > system failure > plant shutdown) helps highlight escalations before they trigger outages.
These techniques running in conjunction enable CEP platforms to extract valuable insights from massive streaming data.
Transformative CEP Use Cases
Leading companies across sectors are achieving digital transformation objectives by leveraging complex event processing platforms:
Intelligent Traffic Management by City Traffic Departments
- Real-time data ingestion from sources like CCTV cameras, modems, traffic counters etc.
- Milliseconds latency event processing enables instant analytics of traffic conditions
- Insights from historical data allows predicting congestion hotspots
- City traffic operators can proactively optimize light cycles, update navigation apps and dispatch officers to cut jams
- Results: Reduced commuting delays, fuel savings and carbon emissions
Algorithmic Trading in Capital Markets
- Stock transaction data flooding in from exchanges across geographies
- Identify arbitrage opportunities through sub-millisecond analytical model execution
- Initiate automated trading decisions exploiting price discrepancies before markets adjust
- Results: Lucrative gains and sharper competitive edge due to timely insights
Similar high-impact use cases leveraging CEP have been implemented across domains like defense, utilities, retail, telecom, manufacturing and healthcare.
Planning Your CEP Implementation
Leveraging complex event processing capabilities requires careful planning and execution to maximize ROIs. Here are few best practices shared by industry experts:
– Start with a limited pilot: Implement CEP for a single high-value use case and scale up accordingly instead boiling the ocean initially.
– Phase technology rollouts: Transition CEP infrastructure progressively to balance capabilities with complexity.
– Ensure skill transfer: Get platform vendors to train your staff via workshops during onboarding to ensure swift self-sufficiency.
– Define quantified success metrics: Establish clearly measurable metrics upfront aligned to business goals against which to evaluate CEP ROI.
– Monitor models continuously: Keep improving analytical and predictive models powering your CEP applications to ensure sustained value.
Gartner estimates that by 2022, 80% of organizations WILL adopt real-time analytics to enable enhanced responsiveness. As industry giants to nimble startups embrace technologies like complex event processing to drive this vision, the competitive stakes have never been higher! The time for you to unlock real-time intelligence is NOW!
