Event streaming: the new data superpower?

In today’s fast-paced digital world, the volume of real-time data being generated daily is nothing short of phenomenal. To satisfy the needs of today’s consumers, businesses need fresh data and fast analytics, while also ensuring compliant systems and processes.

In the age of Instagram and TikTok, real-time data has become the cornerstone of robust social media strategies and engaging with customers through online portals. In fact, recent Datareportal research (published April 2023), finds that social media growth has continued to increase, with more than half of the world (60%) now using social media and 150 million new users added in the last 12 months. In addition, We Are Social’s Digital 2023 Australia report finds 81% of the population, or 21.30 million people, are social media users.

As social media usage continues to grow, global and national regulations around handling personal information continue to tighten. Businesses using social media platforms must also put in place policies and practices that ensure any sensitive social media data arising from customer engagements and interactions is managed accordingly.

As a result, technology solutions that provide real-time data transfer (event streaming) and are able to comply with such regulations have become a prominent choice, especially for businesses operating in heavily regulated industries such as government or finance.

Understanding why event streaming is the superpower for delivering a competitive edge

In simple terms, event streaming is a modern, responsive and flexible way to enable a rapid and continuous flow of data from multiple sources to the organisation. It enables an organisation to capture and process data in real time. For instance, social media-related events could range from engaging with a company’s updates, online videos, interacting with the customer support team through a social media messaging app, or resolving issues and replying to comments on Twitter.

Akin to a ‘superpower’, businesses leveraging event streaming technologies can not only tap into customer engagements and interactions in real time, but are able to do so in a compliant and secure way. Anomalies can also be detected and addressed in an expeditious manner. For example, a bank might be able to detect fraud in real time and act upon it instantly. Government departments are able to respond faster to citizens’ online queries with a platform built for data in motion. Retailers can make product recommendations based on a consumer’s search or purchase history.

Having such a capability not only empowers businesses to stay ahead of the pack by creating more meaningful and context-rich customer experiences but also ensures that their customer and user data is protected and secure at all times.

Deploying managed services to reduce IT pressure and accelerate business value

While having a production-grade event streaming solution can be a game changer, the good news is that it doesn’t have to mean additional work for overstretched IT teams. According to the Equinix 2022 Global Tech Trends Survey, 65% of Australian IT decision-makers view a shortage of personnel with IT skills as one of the main threats to their business. Companies opting for managed services reduce pressure on their people while also managing spend efficiently.

Managed services also go a long way in helping businesses adhere to compliance and data regulations. For instance, it’s crucial that businesses recognise that social media records are considered public records and must be treated as such. In Australia, there are also specific legislative obligations that differ between states. Certain managed solutions offer one-click compliance, removing the requirement to manually capture and preserve data records.

Case in point: how social media archiving expert Brolly uses event streaming

Brolly is an Australian-based company specialising in social media archiving with customers in ANZ and the wider APAC region. Leveraging a fully managed event streaming service, Brolly has been able to improve its offerings and capabilities for customers, streamlining and bringing its social media archiving services to market faster, while at the same time ensuring compliance with regional and local regulations.

As the custodian of highly sensitive data, Brolly has an obligation towards its customers, helping them ensure the privacy of their own customers’ personal data. The organisation has been able to capture and store its massive volumes of customer data in a way that is industry compliant and deliver a modern data infrastructure platform that is secure, reliable and can scale at speed — all while improving data processing efficiency, reducing database errors and freeing up resources. The transition, including migrating Brolly customers’ data to the new platform and services, was completed in less than four months with zero downtime.

Image credit: iStock.com/metamorworks