Stream Analytics Gets Improvements Despite Alternatives

• Azure Stream Analytics hosted service and software provides real-time analysis of data streams from sources such as Web site clickstreams, transactional systems, and equipment sensors.
• Recent updates add input and output options, query language enhancements, and support for running disconnected from Azure.
• Several Microsoft alternatives provide similar functionality.

Azure Stream Analytics, generally available since 2015, continues to receive Microsoft investment, despite its functionality overlap with several other Microsoft offerings.

Understanding Stream Analytics

High volumes of event data, logged on the order of megabytes per second and higher, are commonly archived for later analysis. However, critical value can be derived by processing the data as it arrives. For example, ad targeting, equipment predictive maintenance, fraud and identity theft detection, stock market predictions, and automobile telemetry-based services require real-time interpretation of events to be most effective.