What is StreamInsight?

Petri IT Knowledgebase

May 25, 2009

What does StreamInsight mean for customers?: While OLTP databases have matured and are capable of processing thousands of transactions per second; they are not optimized for processing continuous high volume, low latency streams of data. Microsoft’s innovative StreamInsight™ platform allows customers to use their own proprietary algorithms to build custom real-time applications, ISVs to build industry specific solutions and embedded system developers to offer low latency processing.

What are some of the key scenarios that require support for complex event processing?: Algorithmic trading in the financial services industry, industrial process monitoring and control in manufacturing, oil and gas, pharmaceuticals etc., click stream analysis on the web, electric power utility grid monitoring, data center system monitoring, fraud prevention & detection, oil, and gas pipeline monitoring are some of the scenarios.

What are the key benefits for supporting complex event processing?: The benefits vary by industry and scenario but all are a result of the ability to process large volumes of time varying events/data with very low latency and to take action(s) as a result. For example ability to mine trading opportunities in almost real time in stock markets.
Why is Microsoft making this investment?: Microsoft is committed to enabling customers to better manage their business through quick and effective processing of information. Microsoft is delivering on its promise of “Enabling customers of all sizes to derive value from ALL data, birth through archival”. Besides allowing customers the flexibility to develop their own applications, Microsoft is committed to enabling ISVs and embedded system developers to develop products and solutions that customers can exploit.
Are there specific customers with whom Microsoft has been testing this functionality to date?: Many customers have expressed excitement about this functionality. We will publish more information on customer references closer to the release.
When will this technology be available for customers?: StreamInsight™ will be released as part of SQL Server 2008 R2 release which is expected in H2 fiscal year 2010.
How will StreamInsight™ be licensed and priced?: As of today we have not committed to any pricing or licensing strategies. More information will be available as we get closer to the release in H2 2010.

Do I need to install any other software to take advantage of this support?

StreamInsight™ will require Windows XP/Windows Server 2003 or higher, .NET Fx 3.5 or higher and Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 or higher for development.

Are there benchmark results which support performance expectations for StreamInsight™?

There are no benchmark results available today. We will provide more guidance on actual scalability of specific workloads when we are closer to release. We will consider industry standard benchmarks.

What applications are most likely to need support for StreamInsight™?

Applications that require extremely low latency processing with high scale and performance include:

Process monitoring i.e. scheduling, control, and inventory including processing such as RFID, bar codes, process monitoring at oil and gas refinery.
Financial algorithmic trading, compliance monitoring, fraud detection, risk management
Click stream analysis on websites , context sensitive navigation and ad-delivery model
Utility grid monitoring – demand from meters and supply from generation units combined with energy trading
Patient Monitoring (Healthcare)
Network traffic monitoring, security intrusion detection
IT monitoring
Telecom network monitoring
Anomaly detection

Will StreamInsight™ work/interoperate with non-Microsoft platforms?

StreamInsight™ was not architected/designed with a specific platform in mind. The platform can integrate with other data sources and sinks with the help of right set of adapters.

How is Microsoft fostering development of adapters?

Microsoft is committed to the development of a healthy adapter eco system. Microsoft will be providing an adapter development kit (ADK) with a reference implementation.

What does this announcement mean for partners?

Our partners such as ISVs, embedded system developers and adapter developers will get opportunities to differentiate their product in solution capabilities and performance based on our platform. Partners will be able to save development cost and develop solutions faster using a platform based on a set of proven and mature tools and technologies. High performance and complex query capabilities amongst other features enables development of custom or industry solutions for a variety of industries and scenarios. The ease of development and ready availability of skilled resources will enable customers that have not been able to take advantage to build applications using the technology. Implementation of this support by vendors ensures customer has the options and is able to choose the solutions built on an enterprise class platform that best suits their business.

With which ISVs is Microsoft working now?

We are working with many vendors to build solutions around the platforms. Several end user scenarios require use of this technology and platform. The technology will enable actions and business decision in near real time based on complex processing logic uniquely defined by the needs of the business

When will the next release be?

We plan to release the next major version of the product in 24-26 month.