On the Edge: Analytics for the Modern Enterprise [these are the analyst comments on enterprise data architecture and streaming] Webcast description: The speed of business today requires new approaches to generating and leveraging analytics. Latencies of a day, an hour or even minutes no longer suffice in many situations. For these use cases, organizations must embrace analytics at the edge: a process that involves targeted number-crunching at the fringe of the enterprise. When designed properly, these systems give companies a leg up on their competitors. Register for this episode of The Briefing Room to hear veteran Analyst Mark Madsen of Third Nature explain how a new era of information architectures is now unfolding, paving the way to much more responsive and agile business models. He'll be briefed by Kim Macpherson of the Cisco Data and Analytics Business Unit, who will explain how her company's platform is uniquely suited for this new, federated analytic paradigm. She'll demonstrate how edge analytics can help companies address opportunities quickly and effectively. 

1. 2
Analytics on the Edge:
Connected Analytics
for the Modern
Enterprise
Analyst commentary
August, 2015
Mark Madsen
Third Nature
@markmadsen

2. Copyright Third Nature, Inc.
Order Entry
Order
Database
Customer
Service
Interface
Program
Inventory
Database
Distribution
Interface
Program
Receivables
Database
Accounts
Receivable
Data
Warehouse
Analysts &
users
Someone else always wants to use your data…

3. Copyright Third Nature, Inc.
The data warehouse. More of a CostCo, really.
Came about in a pre‐event streaming market

4. Copyright Third Nature, Inc.
Core idea: centralize: that solves all problems!
But there are tradeoffs:
Creates bottlenecks
Causes scale problems
Enforces a single model
Injects latency

5. Copyright Third Nature, Inc.
New terminology: Data is the new oil

6. Copyright Third Nature, Inc.
New terminology: Data Exhaust

7. Copyright Third Nature, Inc.
New terminology: the data lake

8. Copyright Third Nature, Inc.
There is a different assumption with these terms
“Data isn’t something we make, it’s just there.”
But the prevailing model for management and
use is still “centralize”

9. Copyright Third Nature, Inc.
There is a different assumption with these terms
“Data isn’t something we make, it’s just there.”
But the prevailing model for management and
use is still “centralize”
This won’t work

10. Copyright Third Nature, Inc.
What happens when (a) there are only messages and no
database? and (b) machines are actors in the system?
Order Entry
Order
Database
Customer
Service
Interface
Program
Inventory
Database
Distribution
Interface
Program
Receivables
Database
Accounts
Receivable
Data
Warehouse
Analysts &
users

11. Copyright Third Nature, Inc.
In a mostly‐connected world, events occur in
different time frames, follow different cycles of use
13
Source: Noumenal
Disconnected
Milliseconds Minutes Hours+

12. Copyright Third Nature, Inc.
In a mostly‐connected world, events occur in
different time frames, follow different cycles of use
14
Source: Noumenal
Disconnected
Every event is
persisted for some
period of time before
it is forgotten or
forwarded
Milliseconds Minutes Hours+

13. Copyright Third Nature, Inc.
In a mostly‐connected world, events occur in
different time frames, follow different cycles of use
15
Source: Noumenal
Disconnected
Local context
and control,
local decisions,
local latency
Milliseconds Minutes Hours+

14. Copyright Third Nature, Inc.
In a mostly‐connected world, events occur in
different time frames, follow different cycles of use
16
Disconnected
Source: Noumenal
Milliseconds Minutes Hours+
Bigger context,
likely correlated,
more complex
rules, external
monitoring

15. Copyright Third Nature, Inc.
In a mostly‐connected world, events occur in
different time frames, follow different cycles of use
17
Disconnected
Source: Noumenal
Milliseconds Minutes Hours+
Broad context, human
intervention, diagnosis
and analytical tasks that
have to be coordinated.

16. Copyright Third Nature, Inc.
In a mostly‐connected world, events occur in
different time frames, follow different cycles of use
18
Disconnected
Source: Noumenal
Milliseconds Minutes Hours+
Data lives in multiple places,
at multiple levels of detail, for
differing durations. Unlikely to
all be in one place.
Nor should it be.

17. Copyright Third Nature, Inc.
Flowing Persisted
Sliding window
of “now”
Persisted but not yet
loaded into a platform
Queryable history
Managed history
Streaming isn’t either‐or, it’s part of IT architecture
A DB can get you to within
minutes (at large scale) but it
won’t be easy or cheap, mainly
lives in the realm of history
Event streams, in-mem
stores, CEP streaming
SQL can be used for these
Real time monitoring doesn’t use only real time data: windows, restarts,
detecting deviation, so the above boundaries are crossed.
ESB Cache/Queue Database / platform

18. Copyright Third Nature, Inc.
Stream
If you want to do realtime and still manage your data
effectively then you need to rethink data architecture
Collect Refine Manage Deliver
Flowing Managed historyPersisted
Microservices Metadata
Metadata & reuse?
Flow, persisted, managed define different access,
processing, storage and retrieval requirements

19. Copyright Third Nature, Inc.
Rethinking software and data architectures is
required. Enterprise IT needs to be renovated.

20. Copyright Third Nature, Inc.
Image Attributions
Thanks to the people who supplied the images used in this presentation:
refinery‐hdr.jpg ‐ http://www.flickr.com/photos/vermininc/2477872191/
Building demolition ‐ https://www.flickr.com/photos/gregpc/4429888820
Streaming environment ‐ http://www.noumenal.com/
Slide 22

21. Copyright Third Nature, Inc.
About Third Nature
Third Nature is a research and consulting firm focused on new and emerging technology
and practices in analytics, business intelligence, and performance management. If your
question is related to data, analytics, information strategy and technology infrastructure
then you‘re at the right place.
Our goal is to help companies take advantage of information‐driven management
practices and applications. We offer education, consulting and research services to
support business and IT organizations as well as technology vendors.
We fill the gap between what the industry analyst firms cover and what IT needs. We
specialize in product and technology analysis, so we look at emerging technologies and
markets, evaluating technology and hw it is applied rather than vendor market positions.