IBM Unveils Real-Time Streaming In The Cloud

Today, IBM rolled out the availability of its cloud computing software, called IBM System S, that enables massive amounts of data to be analyzed in real-time. System S is designed to help clients become more “real-world aware” by accessing live data and responding to changes across complex data systems.

IBM, which is making System S available as a trial at no cost to help clients to better understand the software’s capabilities, is designed for constant, real-time analytics. Using a newly developed streaming architecture and mathematical algorithms, System S creates a forward-looking analysis of data from any source – narrowing down precisely what people are looking for and continuously refining the answer as additional data is made available.

For example, IBM says System S can analyze hundreds or thousands of simultaneous data streams – stock prices, retail sales, and weather reports and then deliver nearly immediate analysis to users who need to make split-second decisions.

Financial services firm TD Securities is already using System S to ingest more than five million bits of trading data per microsecond to make faster financial trading decisions. IBM says that to match the capacity of the system, a trader would have to be able to read the entire works of Shakespeare 10 times in less than one second and then identify and execute a stock trade faster than a hummingbird flaps its wings.

IBM says System S took more than 100 patents and seven years to develop.