An extreme transaction processing system could be used for anything from mobile app purchases to ecommerce and the Internet of Things.
Extreme transaction processing, or XTP as it’s been known, has been a viable concept for more than a decade now. It’s has enabled Wall Street firms and financial services giants to process and settle trades and transactions at subsecond speeds. In the fast and fickle stock market, the ability to make a trade at a given fraction of a price, and then sell a moment later at another fraction, is the stuff of high-paced finance.
Now, XTP is something many organizations well beyond Wall Street or the finance sector are looking at. Every business in every type of industry is looking to invest in an extreme transaction processing system to support capabilities within the emerging global digital economy.
In a new report published by Forbes Insights and SAP, extreme transaction processing is defined as the “ability to process at least two million transactions per hour.” In today’s digital economy, the report’s authors point out, there’s “no tolerance for latency, loss, inconsistency or failure. Digital business innovation depends on transactions that are measured in milliseconds or microseconds—millions of them per hour.”
Today’s transactions go beyond traditional orders and payments, the report states – encompassing everything from big data to the Internet of Things. “They now include machine-to-machine transactions, micropayments, peer-to-peer money transfers, pay-per-second products and services, mobile apps and purchases through TV set-top boxes. And any other data-generating event—sensor readings, streaming information from Internet-connected products and activity recorded by in-store beacons, to name just a few.”
The report makes several recommendations on instituting a successful XTP approach:
Keep in mind it’s more of an organizational challenge than a technical one. The technology for supporting millions of transactions per second is readily available and cost-effective. However, the business needs to be ready to capitalize on the capability. “No single technology solution will fit every organization or business case, and the evolution to extreme transaction processing is as much a change management challenge as a technology one,” the report states.
Define which transactions have value. Not every transaction in the enterprise needs to be run at blazing speeds. In other cases, competitiveness may depend on it.
