As the amount of data continues to increase rapidly, so does the need to analyze, transfer, and interpret it. This has escalated the need for data streaming and information transfer and is changing the landscape of computing architectures.

For organizations that receive millions of data artifacts every second, the need for immediate response has never been more apparent, and organizations are starting to see the downfall of performing data analysis after the fact.

The demand for real-time access to data and the ability to make use of it has birthed a new category of applications referred to as Event-Driven Applications.

Event-Driven Architecture (EDA) is revolutionizing how organizations operate and systems communicate in the energy sector and other fast-paced industries.

Event-Driven Architecture Explained

In recent years, with exabytes of data streaming in from IoT devices, organizations have found a new asset from which they can derive value.

The increasing desire to tap into that data for real-time analysis and response has thrust EDA into many new categories of applications, such as real-time responses to sensory data, triggered by the sensors themselves.

Event-driven architecture (EDA) is a software architecture methodology that promotes the production, detection, consumption of, and reaction to events in real-time.

Its predecessor, Database-centric architecture is a software architecture methodology in which databases play a crucial role in the collection, processing, and transmission of incoming data. Unlike EDA, it analyzes data and delivers insights after the fact, rather than in tandem with an event.

Event-driven applications are cutting-edge, often using innovative new technologies such as IoT sensors and real-time responses triggered on the sensors themselves.

These sensors have a more efficient connection by implementing an EDA framework, allowing for easier communication within distributed networks.

Think of event-driven architecture as a nervous system and how all systems communicate with each other—the quicker the communication, the greater the efficiency.

Why Event-Driven Architecture is Critical for the Energy Sector

Event-driven solutions allow businesses to take action immediately before a disaster occurs and more efficiently manage energy usage across their entire grid.

In the energy sector, the ability to monitor operations in real-time can be significant, often alerting a technician to a malfunction or misconfiguration long before it has the potential to lead to a major disaster.

Under traditional database-centric frameworks, all the data would be historical and after-the-fact to prevent future occurrences. But when seconds can be the difference between lives saved and lives lost, it doesn’t allow you to remedy the situation before it becomes catastrophic.

To ensure an ever-increasing number of events can be acted upon in real-time, you need an asynchronous and non-blocking platform. Event-driven systems are implemented on a reactive framework that enables loosely coupled, highly agile applications to manage real-time data.

Instead of merely storing the data for a later audit, event-driven applications process, transform, and distribute important data around events as they occur.

Real-life Application of EDA

Here’s a real-life example of how one of our clients in the energy sector has utilized an event-driven architecture built on the Vantiq platform to improve situational awareness and business agility.

In the event of a gas leak, the leak is detected via thermal imagery or acoustic sensors, and a warning is immediately sent to the operational control room.

There, the operator can visualize the problem in real-time using a digital twin of the refinery. The malfunction is highlighted, showing a live data feed, maintenance history, and recommended response.

This triggers emergency response units and the affected area is immediately evacuated via smart alerts sent to personnel in the facility. On-premise security services are also alerted to aid in evacuation and told to be prepared should the situation escalate.

Finally, a repair drone is automatically dispatched to the leak’s location while the operator monitors and tracks the situation’s real-time status as it’s resolved. Without the ability for real-time analysis and response, the outcome in this situation could’ve been disastrous.

Event-driven architecture applications can be integrated into the most complex systems, hiding the complexity beneath a low code interface, shortening time to value, and increasing agility throughout the business.

Allowing for real-time situational awareness means that business decisions, whether manual or automated, can be made in the moment with all the most up-to-date data available.

How Vantiq Supports the Development of Real-Time Energy Applications

Event-driven architecture provides adaptable solutions that hide the underlying complexity so you can focus on new business capabilities instead of systems and infrastructure. These applications are also inherently scalable and resilient.

The demand for event-driven architecture is expected to increase. In fact, according to Gartner, by 2022, over 50% of organizations will participate in event-driven, digital business ecosystems.

Older software design models and database-centric applications are simply not up to the task of delivering the kind of real-time digital transformation we’ve discussed here today. Instead, EDA is rapidly replacing these traditional technologies in the energy sector and other industries.

The Vantiq platform is implemented on a reactive framework. We enable our clients to build event-driven applications that are loosely coupled, highly agile, and enable data to be managed in real-time.

This provides the situational awareness and agility needed to improve operations, modernize the grid, improve response time, and prevent disasters.

To learn more about how Vantiq is being used by leaders in the energy sector to increase situational awareness, improve business agility, and modernize the grid, we invite you to join us for a webinar, How Real-Time Systems Help Reduce Carbon Emissions and Achieve Safe Operations on 5/5 at 10AM PT.

Learn more and register here.