Company
Date Published
Author
Michael Carroll
Word count
1763
Language
English
Hacker News points
None

Summary

A real-time data stream is a continuous flow of JSON messages, transmitted in quick succession through a publish/subscribe (pub/sub) paradigm, where any device connected to the Internet can act as a publisher, and multiple subscribers receive the messages nearly instantaneously. The explosion of Internet of Things (IoT) devices, like cars, kiosks, and sensors, fits naturally into this model, allowing them to send and receive data efficiently. PubNub, a platform optimized for this paradigm, supports a wide array of use cases, such as stock price streaming, taxi dispatch systems with geolocation, real-time communication, and multiplayer gaming, by ensuring a global message delivery latency of under 100 milliseconds, even for millions of subscribers. With over 70 SDKs, PubNub simplifies the integration of real-time data streams across various platforms, making it feasible to develop applications that can handle large volumes of data with remarkable speed and reliability.