While people may think Big Data is famously over-hyped, the industry actually continues to thrive and innovate. Customers still demand access to the power of data and the ability to collect, analyze and visualize it in their own way, and the industry is responding to that demand.
Corvil provides a Streaming Machine-Time Analytics Platform to run a business successfully in the machine world. Several emerging technologies are useful for working with Corvil’s streaming data: Spark Streaming as a processing platform, Druid as a data store for metrics and analytics, Presto as a store for event data, and Kafka, for example. Corvil ensures that these components and others work together reliably in real-time, which is essential as real-time visualization remains a particularly challenging area for customers.
Corvil’s team is now focused on enabling customers to access the right data and the right analytics to generate meaningful insights from it. Having a lot of data will not help if it is the wrong data; Corvil strives to deliver the right data to solve customers’ problems.
Solutions for Customers
Corvil provides monitoring and analysis solutions with a focus on automated businesses. It generates analytics and intelligence to support use cases in client experience monitoring, security, and performance optimization.
Many customers lack access to high quality, real-time information about what is happening within their automated business systems. Corvil’s team solves this problem by tapping into network data within the environment, and using it to generate streams of accurate and detailed information that updates in real-time. Corvil’s customers consume Corvil data streams – which Corvil calls “machine-time intelligence” – either directly or by integrating their own big data architecture.
Innovative Power Sources
Fergal Toomey and Raymond Russell are the Co-founders of Corvil. Fergal Toomey is the Chief Scientist and Raymond Russell is the CTO. Prior to Corvil, Fergal was an assistant professor at the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, where with other members of the Applied Probability Group he pioneered the application of data science and probability theory to the study of performance in computer systems. Fergal leads a team of machine learning experts who work closely with a Corvil’s product development team, and are focused on tackling customers’ most challenging analytical problems.
The company’s CEO, Donal Byrne, has twenty five years’ experience working in the field of high-performance computer systems, network communications, and real-time data analytics, and is responsible for driving the company to a leading position in the world of IT data analytics and real-time operational intelligence.
Futuristic Solutions with Reliabilty
Corvil’s team is closely aligned with the research world, as it collaborates with universities and participates in research networks focused on data analytics. Corvil stays up to date with emerging technologies by attending and presenting at leading Big Data conferences like Spark Summit and Strata Hadoop.
Corvil solutions are delivered on-prem. As Corvil solutions are increasingly utilized for regulatory compliances use cases in the financial sector, it is essential that the deployed solutions remain resilient. Providing a fully redundant data pipeline – from acquisition through analysis and finally to delivery – is the main way Corvil seeks to ensure the reliability of its offering.
Solutions for Automation
The world is becoming more automated as more businesses rely on machines not just to carry out business operations, but also to make actual business decisions in real-time. The electronic trading industry, where Corvil has years of experience, has been an early example of this. As businesses automate more and more processes, they need help to oversee and safeguard their systems in real-time. The pace of operation is faster and the stakes are higher.
IT systems can be opaque and getting visibility is hard work. Corvil’s role is to make it easy. The benefits to customers include insight into security threats within their environment, better understanding of how their clients experience their offerings, and improved control over operational risks.
Futuristic Approach
Corvil believes that traditional IT monitoring is evolving into a more open data collection and analysis paradigm. This is particularly true in highly automated business sectors, where the IT infrastructure is critical to business delivery. Corvil’s customers use data from their infrastructures to analyze how their businesses are doing.
Big Data technologies have a crucial role to play in enabling this. For real-time and interactive use cases, it’s still an evolving arena. Though many new and exciting solutions have appeared over the past few years, many are also not yet fully mature. It’s still hard work for customers to get a full real-time stack working. Corvil sees this becoming easier over time, with the industry settling on a smaller number of more standardized architectures.
Cloud and virtualized infrastructure is an area where many of Corvil’s customers feel they need better and more accurate instrumentation. Customers are frustrated by the cost of gaining accurate visibility into large-scale virtualized environments. Corvil is working hard to address these needs over the next year.
Corvil sees monitoring becoming dependent on AI due to the complexity, volume and speed of information in machine-time environments. Machine learning depends on data, so gaining access to the best data and providing smart tools to analyze it is a Corvil’s focus for the future.
