The term "real-time" has become a marketing buzzword, but true real-time — which means sub-second latency — is a rare capability, not a standard feature. While many Customer Data Platforms (CDPs) claim to offer it, they often fall short due to four major technical hurdles.
Most CDPs rely on data delivered in large batches from sources like CRM systems, data warehouses, and offline interactions. This process is inherently slow. The CDP has to pull in this data, clean it, and format it before it can be used. If the source data isn't a continuous stream, your CDP can't be either. You're left trying to act in the present with information from the past.
Identity resolution is arguably the biggest obstacle to real-time data. To create a single customer profile, a CDP must stitch together data from various devices and sessions. This requires complex calculations that most CDPs run in scheduled batches — often hourly or even daily. This means a user's profile isn't fully updated with their latest activity until the next batch run, leaving you with an incomplete view of your customer in the moment that matters most.
Even if a CDP processes data quickly, getting it to the systems that actually use it can create new delays. This final step, known as activation, introduces latency. Downstream systems like email service providers, ad platforms, or personalization engines often aren't built to receive and act on data in milliseconds. They may have their own rate limits or processing schedules, creating a final-step bottleneck that slows everything down.
Many legacy CDPs were built on a data model that creates a separate database to hold customer information. This leads to data silos and requires constant syncing, which adds layers of complexity and latency. If your primary data source is a data warehouse that isn't built for real-time streaming, your CDP will inherit that fundamental architectural flaw.
Celebrus's patented technology is specifically designed to bypass these challenges, enabling true, millisecond-level data delivery. Instead of relying on slow batch processes, we capture data at the source — as it’s being created — and make it immediately available for marketing activation. When you need to act in the moment, leading brands choose a platform built for speed and accuracy.
To find out if your platform’s data is truly real-time and what to do if it isn’t, read Is Your CDP Providing True Real-Time Data?
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