Wednesday, November 12, 2003

Storing Transient Data

John Udell reports, "Today, most IT shops can't store or process massive flows of transient data. But XML message traffic is a resource that creates strategic opportunity for those who learn to manage it well. Tools for doing that are on the way. "

Hmmm... if I create a persistent store of transient data, is it still transient? Maybe there is a reason most IT shops don't store transient data - wouldn't that just be considered 'persistent data'??
:-)

Ok, I understand what he means - perhaps instead of 'transient' maybe we could call it 'inter-service message data' or just 'message data'? Still, I'm not sure that I buy into the concept. Most I.T. shops do a significant amount of warehousing and reporting off the system of records that generate the messages. The reliability side is currently taken care of by message queue journaling, and realtime inquiry on state is best handled through an inquiry to a business process engine or BAM notification.

Right now, collecting transient data sounds like a bad habit... I need a use-case, with strong, strong justification.

No comments: