With more and more data being generated every day, there’s an increasing market for analytics solutions to analyse such copious amounts of information.
The Internet of Things (IoT) itself is going to connect an estimated 50 billion devices and objects to the Internet by 2020. Because of this, data will be created at an even faster pace than most companies can manage. Perhaps that’s why Cisco has decided to acquire ParStream, a privately-held company based in Cologne, Germany.
ParStream provides an analytics database that allows companies to analyse large amounts of data and store it in near real time anywhere in the network.
Making the announcement on its official blog, Cisco said, “Speed is critical for helping companies generate value from data in IoT environments. ParStream’s highly specialised database is built for IoT environments. It allows customers to compute and analyse large amounts of data at the edge in real time, with minimal infrastructure and operating costs at the edge.”
Using innovative compression and indexing capabilities, ParStream’s technology helps customers access data faster and at scale, rapidly analysing and filtering billions of records and getting information to the business in near real-time.
This acquisition complements Cisco’s current data and analytics portfolio, improving its ability to provide analytics at the edge of the network, where data is increasingly being generated and in huge volume. Analytics are at the heart of Cisco’s strategy for a hyper distributed intelligent infrastructure.
On its part, ParStream said on its blog, “We will continue to operate as we always have, with our top priority being your satisfaction in our delivery and pursuit of excellence. We’ll continue to deliver the same high level of commitment to your business. Although our day-to-day business operations will not change, in the coming weeks and months you’ll see us shift into overdrive. We’ll be empowered by Cisco to innovate in new ways and to share all the benefits of being part of a world-class company with you. Our focus remains on delivering the technology and solutions you need to drive success in your business.”
Among the many things that ParStream’s technology can do is to help a renewable energy company track and monitor thousands of wind turbines at once by providing the information to optimise the performance of each turbine and quickly adjust to changing environmental factors like wind direction and temperature.
Instead of sending this data to a centralised server, the company can store the data at the edge of the network, closer to the turbines and sensors, and track results even across a highly distributed network. Real-time access to data derived from the connected equipment can lead to benefits like decreased equipment downtime through predictive maintenance, increased productivity, and historical analysis of environmental patterns.
Incidentally, ParStream was part of the Cisco Entrepreneurs in Residence startup program. The ParStream team will be integrated into Cisco’s Analytics and Automation portfolio, joining the Data and Analytics Group. The acquisition is expected to close in the second quarter of fiscal year 2016, said the announcement.
Image Credit: ParStream