Life is just a series of moments and interactions. Similarly, business operations are just a continuation of different transactions and events. Just like each individual deals with specific incidents in different ways, your software is going to react to different pieces of information in various ways. When data points come into a computer system, there’s a whole process to how that information is computed and understood. You have a process where you put information and input into boxes and process what is happening. Computers do the same thing.
There are a few different kinds of architectures and ways these computer systems process that data. For years, it went sequentially. The dataset would arrive and certain steps needed to be followed so everything flowed correctly. Then, event-driven architecture (EDA) came along. This technique gives businesses an unparalleled power to follow specific data points and react to customer inquiries in real-time rather than waiting for permission to act. Let’s take a look at some details surrounding EDA and why this is a beneficial architecture for how you run your business.
Defining Event-Driven Architecture
Before you can fully understand and appreciate the benefits of EDA, it helps to understand what is EDA. Essentially, this is a software design program that allows your systems to respond to events and moments in real-time. This is a change from the request/response architecture that previously ruled all data science and computer systems. Think of it this way. Before, your architecture was like a slinky. It needed to climb each step before it could see the next place to go. With EDA, your architecture is more like an octopus with its many arms working on different things all at the same time. This is known as asynchronous communication. Rather than waiting for the sender and recipient to agree before moving on, your system can operate at full potential and capacity without waiting on anything.
EDA has changed and grown over time.
As software and computer systems have become more advanced, so have the architectures. Previous statistical computing was very regulated and ordered. One thing had to happen before you could take your next steps. Now, EDA is changing the game. Rather than working on a service-oriented, data at rest model, your data sets are constantly changing and flowing based on individual events. This shifts your priorities so rather than waiting for all the information and potentially losing customers, you are able to respond and react to requests immediately.
What qualifies as an event?
When it comes to EDA, an event is something much different than a birthday party or the MET Gala. These types of events are interactions or transactions that take place for a business. Some examples of events would be someone completing a purchase on your online store, a patron requesting a new password for their dashboard, a manager updating inventory, or a notification that your package arrived. These all change the status of a specific data point and therefore affect the outcome for your company. With EDA, your system will see each of these alerts and immediately respond. For example, when a customer requests to reset their password, an email will send to them automatically thanks to this algorithm.
Benefits of EDA
So why is EDA so important for businesses? Mainly, this helps you respond and react to customers more immediately. Plus, you can take on more tasks at a time without mailing for your computer software to catch up with you. You’ll also be able to identify missing values and make stronger statistical models based on real-time data and algorithms. Machine learning capabilities like EDA help your data work for you as you look for smarter ways to gain actionable insights for your business.