New Study Links Enterprise Success to Defeating Time

As businesses leverage data as a competitive advantage, how they tackle the issue of latency will determine success

News provided by

Nov 21, 2019, 09:00 ET

SAN MATEO, Calif., Nov. 21, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Hazelcast, the leading in-memory computing platform that delivers the System of Now™, today released its "Infinity Data" report that reveals the link between latency, innovation and business performance. The research, commissioned in collaboration with Intel, revealed that more than half (65%) of organizations measure the cost of speed and response time on their business, highlighting how defeating latency is key to an organization's success. The study surveyed IT decision-makers across five key industries – financial services, e-commerce/retail, telecommunications, energy and the public sector – about how they are addressing new and persistent digital challenges that affect systems and performance.

In an era inundated with the promise of artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning and other advanced technologies, businesses need to view and measure their world through a different, faster time scale to meet the new levels of performance necessary to compete. According to Hazelcast's research, companies are measuring performance in mere milliseconds and microseconds (58%) rather than seconds (39%). To put it into context, the average blink of an eye is 300 milliseconds or 300,000 microseconds. And these levels of processing speeds are separating business leaders from laggards – the survey found that 25% of companies measuring latency in seconds report having an "extremely difficult" time managing advances in technology speed.

"The intersection of time and data is the next frontier for businesses to conquer, especially if they are to deploy artificial intelligence, edge computing and any other data-centric applications or services," said Kelly Herrell, CEO of Hazelcast. "While latency has quickly become a significant barrier to company performance, our research reveals that organizations capable of measuring its impact on the business are better positioned to be a leader in the digital era."

Reducing latency is the hallmark of competitive organizations, allowing them to perform at the speed and scale necessary to embrace new innovations in AI, edge computing, IoT and more. Numerous examples in modern business demonstrate why low latency and high performance in handling data and transactions at scale are essential. For example, payment processing systems illustrate the impact of low latency – according to the research, 75% of financial services respondents reported that quickly executing transactions is "extremely important" to their organization's competitive advantage.

The increase in devices, sensors and a variety of other data sources create the opportunity for better decision-making and customer offerings. However, the research revealed that nearly half (49%) of respondents have significant difficulties handling the influx of large volumes of data from these IoT devices. For smart organizations to thrive, it will become imperative to adopt new technologies that can handle big data while eliminating latency in order to deliver an improved customer experience.

Additional key findings from the survey include:

AI and machine learning ranked first among technologies expected to be most disruptive, while automation of processes and AI adoption were tied for second in being named the biggest drivers of industry change in the next two years
5G is a top-five disrupting force among the e-commerce/retail and financial services industries, while implementing 5G ranked 4th overall in terms of priorities over the next two years
Automation of processes is seen as one of the biggest drivers of change, while investing in automation tied for first as one of the steps companies are taking to prepare for a recession in the next year
Protecting privacy was the biggest concern related to cybersecurity threats, while security risks and privacy concerns were seen as the top two barriers to efforts to move to the cloud

To download a copy of Hazelcast's "Infinity Data" report, visit: https://hazelcast.com/resources/infinity-data-report/

Additional Resources:

Infinity Data Report [White paper]
Building Faster Applications with Stream Processing [Website]
Advancements in High Speed, In-Memory Systems [White paper]

About Hazelcast, Inc.
Hazelcast delivers the System of Now™, an in-memory computing platform that empowers Global 2000 enterprises to deliver innovative, low-latency, data-centric applications. Built for ultra-fast processing at extreme scale, Hazelcast's cloud-native in-memory data grid and event stream processing technologies are trusted by leading companies such as JPMorgan Chase, Charter Communications, Ellie Mae, UBS, and National Australia Bank to accelerate business-critical applications.

Hazelcast is headquartered in San Mateo, CA, with offices across the globe. To learn more about Hazelcast, visit https://hazelcast.com.

SOURCE Hazelcast, Inc.