Tervela Message Medium Blog

I had the opportunity to attend a great panel discussion at this week’s Gartner Event Processing Summit 2008 in Stamford, CT. It was moderated by Roy Schulte, Gartner VP Distinguished Analyst and included not just the usual suspects in the messaging space (read software), but some of the newer players (read hardware acceleration) including (gratuitous reference) Tervela. Roy was even-handed, yet challenged all of us on our solution approach, differentiation and target market.

So, what was the motivation for this panel entitled Ultra-Low Latency Messaging Panel Discussion? Events, messages and low-latency communications are critical components of what we do. Roy commented that events are becoming more widely deployed in diverse business settings. More importantly, those events have increasing time sensitivity. Messaging, of course, is the foundation for event processing now and moving forward.

So, what was my take? Aside from the typical “some speakers were good and some were less so,” one thing was clear: the world of messaging is splitting into software and hardware. To say one is better than the other would be naïve – and we don’t even position ourselves that way. But one thing we do know: when the volumes start getting high, software systems just can’t keep up. (When was the last time you used a software-based LAN switch?) Is this new? No, but with the rise of events and their underlying messages, we’re starting to redline the performance tachometer.

Where is this all going? Just look to the financial services industry; it’s been a rather good harbinger for the broader enterprise.

=rob.ciampa

Tags: event processing (1) ultra-low latency (1) gartner (1) roy schulte (1) 

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