Design principles for developing stream processing applications

Stream processing applications are used to ingest, process, and analyze continuous data streams from heterogeneous sources of live and stored data, generating streams of output results. These applications are, in many cases, complex, large-scale, low-latency, and distributed in nature. In this paper, we describe the design principles and architectural underpinnings for stream processing applications. These principles are distilled from our experience in building real-world applications both for internal use as well as with customers from several industrial and academic domains. We provide principles, guidelines, as well as appropriate implementation examples to highlight the different aspects of stream processing application design and development. Copyright 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.