Data streaming platform Confluent works on delivering digital front-end customer experiences and transitioning to real-time, software-driven backend operations with its real time data streaming tools. India is a key market for Confluent as the company scales up its global presence. In an email interview, Rubal Sahni, area vice president and country manager for India, Confluent, discusses the challenges in managing data, global data streaming trends, data explosion with use of Internet of Things (IoT) devices and more. Edited excerpts:
Data is the key driver of the digital economy. Now this data growth is exploding. What are the challenges in managing this data?
Critical data that’s still stored in legacy databases and owned by different teams has left companies with islands of disconnected data. Another challenge is the complexity of managing data from multiple sources and systems. Since each source may generate data in different formats and for different purposes, additional integrations need to be done so that it enables a seamless exchange of data and allows these data points to be correlated for insights.
By adopting a modern data streaming platform organisations can address these challenges to enable a real-time and unified view of their data.
Use of IoT sensors is going up, be it in smart homes, industry 4.0 solutions, wearables, medical devices and so on. This is also increasing the data streamed from multiple machines. What is the RoI for enterprises when they deploy such solutions?
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Leveraging the enormous flow of data from interconnected devices, enterprises can undergo digital transformations, facilitating brand-new operating models and improvements to efficiency.Leveraging the IoT sensors, enterprises gain real-time insights into their operations, allowing them to identify areas for optimisation and enabling a data-driven decision framework to improve overall performance.
The ROI from IoT solutions vary depending on the use case, but enterprises have seen significant cost savings and growth in their revenue as a result of IoT deployments. A recent study by McKinsey found that predictive maintenance using IoT sensors can reduce upkeep costs by up to 30% and increase uptime by up to 10%.
How does the Confluent platform help businesses achieve their goals?
Providing a unified platform for real-time data streaming, the Confluent platform enables businesses to unlock the value from their data in a timely manner. Confluent creates a central nervous system for a business – in the same way that the central nervous system ties together all the independent parts of the human body into a coherent whole, Confluent connects every part of the organisation – applications and infrastructure with real-time data flows and processing, regardless of data format, volume or velocity.
What types of analytics and insights can be generated using data streaming platforms?
By providing decision-makers with operational insights in real-time, businesses can evaluate system performance and availability, enabling organizations to optimise their infrastructure and improve overall efficiency. This also includes supply chain optimisation where data is used to identify inefficiencies and opportunities.
Companies can identify and react to changes in the market instantaneously. This enables companies to be in a state of constant improvement where they optimise their service and offerings to reflect the market demand. This includes predictive analytics, where businesses can identify patterns and trends that can be used to predict future outcomes, such as customer behaviour, equipment failure, and more.
One example is in fraud detection. The ability to contextualise data from multiple sources, identify data theft patterns and stop potential fraudulent access in fractions of a second and help organisations to take immediate action and mitigate losses.
How much are enterprises globally and in India spending on data streaming solutions?
Despite ongoing economic uncertainty, a recent IDC survey spotlight results show that more than 50% of organisations are planning to increase their PaaS (Platform as a Service) investments in AI and analytics, integration, streaming, data and DataOps. Investments in these areas continue to rise because organisations now grasp how these technologies will make them more competitive in good times or more challenging ones.
How do you see data streaming evolve over the next 3 to 5 years? What kind of efficiencies, risks will this result in?
We see tremendous potential for the growth and evolution of data streaming over the next 3 to 5 years. With the explosive growth of data from various sources, including IoT devices, edge computing, and cloud computing, businesses will need to adopt real-time data streaming solutions to stay competitive and make faster, more informed decisions.
We expect to see increased adoption of data streaming architectures, which will allow businesses to seamlessly connect data streams from various sources and enable data-driven applications. This will help drive operational efficiencies and improve customer experiences, as businesses can react in real-time to changing customer needs and preferences.
