Definition(s):
Real Time
Real Time data synchronization is the continual process of keeping a record identical between two or more systems. the timing for this is measured in milliseconds or single digit seconds and is controlled by triggering actions, e.g. “every time you write to a table you run the sync”.
Near Real Time or “Near Time”
Near Time data synchronization is measured in seconds or in single digit minutes, and is a fast Batch synchronization controlled by a schedule, e.g. every 2 mins.
Explanation and Considerations.
When you are talking about the data synchronization between systems, and requirements come up in initial project conversations, ALL business users and indeed most senior management will say “Real time” straight away, its a phrase they know, it is a speed they see on their phones and in a lot of social media. But when it comes to enterprise or legacy data exchange, it is something that requires significant changes or investment to get right.
Let me explain further. Real time is when an action is performed on one system, and it instantly alerts another system that a change has been made. That system can then pull or receive the data changes. It happens in real time, hence the name. Now, if you think about that, that requires a load of effort. There are lots of ways of doing this. You can buy fancy software that will watch the other system like a hawk. You can have transactional logs, which save an entry to a file every time a changes made. And then the other system can watch for those log changes and make the update, etc etc, all while the servers are trying to do their real job of supporting the users doing business, so to make this work you will either require lots of time, lots of resource, lot of money, or sometimes all three.
The real question is, does your business unit require that level of data synchronisation? The only way to truly know is to go and actually do a workflow assessment, work out how exactly they’re going to work with the data, that will give you your answer. Hopefully it will also give you an answer for exactly how long it is that the data can be in one system before it actually has to be in the other.
This is where Near Time comes in. Near Time is basically fast scheduling. You’ve got a schedule that’s looking for changes every few minutes. If it finds any changes, it’ll synchronise them, then repeat. It doesn’t require anything like as much special tooling or resources and very very rarely requires your to reconfigure or expand your existing systems. Nearly all data exchange systems will have this kind of thing built in. And so will be far cheaper and more reliable, and often be far nearer to what your business really needs.