Twitter Facebook LinkedIn Flipboard 1 The concept of real time data management isn’t new; it’s been around for decades. But only a few businesses have succeeded in building a real-time platform from the ground up that will support the agility and scalability they crave. The problem is that it’s not a straightforward matter to integrate data from disparate sources in real time and support an on-demand transactional platform that can handle unpredictable workloads. Budget is often a show-stopper. According to an April 2013 Forrester Consulting survey of several hundred IT professionals, commissioned by SAP, two in five organizations found that their real-time data platform efforts were hampered by a lack of IT budget. But tellingly, most were expecting their expenditure on real-time data management to increase. A similar proportion of organizations lack the expertise or knowledge to support the programming, administration, and integration requirements of traditional in-memory solutions. A further roadblock is the complexity of existing data sources, as the integration of unstructured data requires a deeper understanding of its association with structured data than many businesses have today. However, recent technology advances, lower hardware costs, and innovation have helped overcome these issues. A combination of distributed in-memory storage, data virtualization, Big Data solutions, predictive analytics, enterprise data modeling, data governance, and data streamlining and replication tools can deliver an economical real-time data management platform that will satisfy any enterprise requirements. If that sounds like an extensive shopping list, you’ll welcome the news that these components are available as part of a single, software-based architecture for data management and applications that can be deployed modularly. SAP® Real-Time Data Platform does precisely this. In the next blog in this series, we’ll explore the IT and business benefits of real-time data management. Meanwhile, to see how it all fits together, visit www.sap.com/realtime_data or watch our short video. Twitter Tweet Facebook Share Email This article originally appeared on Innovation and has been republished with permission.Find out how to syndicate your content with B2C Author: Emma CapronView full profile ›More by this author:Real Time Data Management: How IT Can Be TransformedReal Time Data Management: Why Businesses Can and Must TransformThe Right Information, At the Right Time, With the Right Experience