The world of real-time systems has been around for a long time; for many years real-time and/or streaming was solely the domain of hardware real-time systems. Those are systems where if an SLA isnt met, there is potential loss of life. Over the last decade near-real-time systems have emerged and grown at an amazing rate. Everywhere you look you can find examples of data streaming: social media, games, smart cities, smart meters, your new washing machine, and the list goes on. Consider the following: Today if a te of data were a gallon of water, an average home would be filled within 10 seconds; the year 2020, it will only take 2 seconds.
