Introduction

We live in a world surrounded by data. Whether you are using a mobile app, playing a game, browsing a social networking website, or buying your favorite accessory from an online store, companies have set up different services to collect, store, and analyze high throughput information to stay up to date on customer's choices and behaviors. These types of setups, in general, require complex software and infrastructures that can be expensive to provision and manage.

Many of us have worked on aggregating data from different sources to accomplish reporting requirements, and most of us can attest that this whole data crunching process is often very demanding. However, a more painful trend has been that as soon as the results of this data are found, the information is out of date again. Technology has drastically changed over the last decade, which has resulted in real-time data being a necessity to stay relevant for today's businesses. Moreover, real-time data helps organizations improve...