Reltio adds real-time data delivery to fuel fast decisions
The vendor's new Lightspeed Data Delivery Network can be used to feed customer recommendation engines and other applications that need data instantaneously to fuel actions.
Reltio on Tuesday launched the Lightspeed Data Delivery Network, a new feature that nearly instantaneously delivers actionable data to inform real-time decisions.
In addition, the vendor released its latest Reltio Data Cloud update, adding capabilities that address data privacy, unification and the complexity of location data.
Many applications for data occur in the moment. In the past, data was largely used to look at past performance to discover trends that inform business decisions. Now, however, uses such as personal recommendation delivery or making a medical diagnosis take place in real time. Such uses require that data be available in milliseconds.
The Reltio Lightspeed Data Delivery Network is designed to deliver data to applications and personalized experiences in less than a second, no matter where an end user is located worldwide.
Given the near instantaneous data delivery enabled by the new feature, it's a meaningful addition for Reltio customers, according to Doug Henschen, an analyst at Constellation Research.
"This is a big deal for Reltio customers because it gives them another option to satisfy fast-growing demands for low-latency applications and use cases," he said.
This is a big deal for Reltio customers because it gives them another option to satisfy fast-growing demands for low-latency applications and use cases.
Doug HenschenAnalyst, Constellation Research
Other vendors offer real-time data delivery capabilities. For example, Confluent and Qlik. However, for existing Reltio customers, the Lightspeed Data Delivery Network provides real-time data delivery without having to seek such capabilities from a third party, Henschen continued.
"Customers might appreciate this if they are familiar and comfortable with Reltio and don't want to have to turn to another provider, license its services/tech and learn its platform. It gives them an opportunity to extend their current investment both in Reltio services and training."
Based in Redwood City, Calif., Reltio is a master data management (MDM) specialist whose tools enable customers to unify distributed data. Competitors include Informatica, Semarchy and Tibco.
New capabilities
Reltio's Lightspeed Data Delivery Network is built on nodes that receive data in real time from the Reltio Data Cloud, according to Ansh Kanwar, Reltio's executive vice president of product, technology and strategy. Data is then stored on the nodes to optimize it for queries and near instantaneous read times.
In addition, the new feature delivers data through a REST API so it can be used by systems such as BI platforms and mobile applications.
Reltio's development of the Lightspeed Data Delivery Network represents the vendor's recognition that real-time data is a necessity in the modern business world and is its attempt to meet that need, according to Kanwar.
"We live in an 'always on' hyperconnected world where consumers expect personalized experiences at the point of engagement," he said. "What's missing in the world today is … having the right data available at your fingertips, when and where you need it. Reltio Lightspeed Data Delivery Network addresses this need."
Specific benefits of Reltio's Lightspeed Data Delivery Network include access to data in a fraction of second, a service architecture optimized for queries to help customers control costs and multi-region deployments to speed data delivery and resilience.
In addition, with MDM a key part of data governance, the data delivered in real time through the Reltio Data Cloud to applications can be trusted to the same extent an enterprise's governed historical data can be trusted.
Like Henschen, Stewart Bond, an analyst at IDC, said the new feature is significant, given that it provides timely access to relevant data.
In particular, the Lightspeed Data Delivery Network will benefit applications such as AI agents that are trained on an enterprise's proprietary data to take on tasks in real time previously performed by human beings.
"Organizations need access to timely, relevant and high-quality data to serve many digital processes," Bond said. "This will be even more prevalent with AI use cases and as agentic AI begins to take hold [and] untimely, poor quality or irrelevant data could result in suboptimal, incorrect, or unwanted agent actions and outcomes."
Henschen, meanwhile, noted that the service architecture raises potential concerns for Reltio customers.
Some real-time data delivery tools are built on open source technology rather than a proprietary service. Open source technology is intended to integrate easily with other tools. Integrating proprietary services with tools from other vendors, however, is often complex.
"I'm sure customers will want to learn more about compatibility and integrations with popular third-party applications and platforms, and open source technologies," Henschen said.
Beyond the addition of the Lightspeed Data Delivery Network, Reltio added new capabilities in Reltio Data Cloud. They include data masking to protect sensitive information, bulk-match review to accelerate data unification and reverse geocoding to convert location data to understandable addresses.
Each are also provided by other data management vendors, according to Henschen. As a result, he termed the update "incremental" and "expected."
Even if incremental, they are useful to Reltio customers, given that fears related to data security keep some organizations from deploying AI applications that could otherwise benefit their business, according to Bond.
"The enhanced data privacy, unification and usability capabilities are … valuable as we know that data privacy and protection is holding some organizations back from going further with AI projects.
Looking ahead
Reltio's future product development plans include improving real-time data management and AI-powered data unification, as well as adding new integrations to expand the Reltio ecosystem, according to Kanwar.
One area Reltio would be wise to continue focusing on is finding a way to integrate its MDM capabilities into agentic AI architectures, according to Bond. MDM can be a means of ensuring data quality, and high-quality data is a prerequisite for AI.
"All master data management software vendors will need to find their role and place in agentic architectures," Bond said.
Henschen, meanwhile, suggested that like its competitors, Reltio continue to expand beyond its MDM roots. Its foray into low-latency data services with the Lightspeed Data Delivery Network represents such expansion. Adding more data integration capabilities could be an opportunity for further expansion.
"I'd expect [Reltio] to continue to move into adjacent markets and give new and existing customers an opportunity to do more with its cloud-based platform," Henschen said.
Eric Avidon is a senior news writer for Informa TechTarget and a journalist with more than 25 years of experience. He covers analytics and data management.
