More financial dealings are being done on exchanges and on Internet platforms, where the order flow instantly becomes public information.

ECONOMIST: Investment banks

Now, when inventories fall below a certain level, the checkout scanners instantly order a new batch based on historical demand and delivery time.

FORBES: Street Smarts

For instance, when a product's aluminum surface is shrunk or bent, the amount of on-order aluminum sheet metal changes instantly.

FORBES: Easy Designer

So we learned to respond instantly to one another in order to stay alive.

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You can think of the difference between Big Data and Fast Data as the difference between downloading a movie from an online store (and having to wait until the entire movie downloads in order to watch it) and streaming the same movie (where you can start watching it instantly).

FORBES: Fast Data Gets A Jump On Big Data