CIOs faced with the encroaching issue of ‘big data’ should look to investing in real-time platforms in order to remain competitive in the future, according to IBM chief scientist, Jeff Jonas.

The utilities sector has been quick to adopt the real-time vision, particularly those organisations that have made an early move to smart grid deployments. Australian-born CIO, Joe Locandro, says the organisation has long used real-time monitoring — or what it calls condition-based monitoring — for its power plants and infrastructure. Thousands of sensors measure variables such as vibration, heat and voltage consistency, and feed them into OSIsoft’s PI System enterprise infrastructure management software.

Facebook is releasing as open source a Web server technology because it wants to make it easier for developers to create applications that let users post status updates in real time, a functionality popularized by Twitter.

Let's call it the Wall Street Effect: Many companies now face tremendous pressure to ensure that all corporate data is "up to the second," just like those traders on The Street who bask in sub-second financial data and those consumer "day traders" who now demand equal speed.