When should I use Apache Druid? Try this checklist.

Apache Druid is specifically designed to provide high-performance operational analytics, or "continuous analytics," by enabling real-time data processing and decision-making. This distinguishes it from traditional second-generation cloud data warehouses like Snowflake and BigQuery, which excel at "cold analytics" but typically have longer query latencies. Druid offers significant cost and performance advantages when used for applications requiring high-speed query execution on large volumes of time series data with infrequent updates and high insertion rates, such as those involving streaming data from sources like Kafka. While traditional data warehouses remain effective for batch processing and business intelligence, Druid's architecture is optimized for sub-second query latencies in scenarios demanding rapid, real-time insights. As data analytics evolves towards edge environments and real-time processing, Druid's capabilities make it particularly well-suited for companies looking to leverage their data for immediate, operational decision-making.