The text discusses the critical importance of time and data management in modern business operations, highlighting how real-time data streaming, serverless computing, and edge computing are reshaping the landscape. It illustrates this through the story of two entrepreneurs who laid a direct fiber-optic cable between the Chicago and New York Stock Exchanges to gain a speed advantage in high-frequency trading. The narrative emphasizes that in today's fast-paced environment, every millisecond counts, as delays can lead to significant revenue loss, diminished customer engagement, and reduced data value. Innovations like Functions-as-a-Service (FaaS), event-driven architecture, and edge computing enable businesses to process and act on data more swiftly, offering competitive advantages by allowing faster insights and decision-making. These technologies facilitate the efficient handling of data at the edge, reduce reliance on cloud computing for immediate tasks, and provide flexible, loosely-coupled architectures optimal for integrating third-party services and building responsive applications.