ATLANTA, GA - AUGUST 1: Michael Johnson of the US (L) poses for the press next to the clock after ... [ ] the men's Olympic 400m race at the Olympic Stadium in Atlanta, Georgia, 01 Aug. Johnson hurtled into history books in world record time as he completed an unprecedented Olympic double with the 400m and the 200m. Johnson clocked 19.32 sec to destroy Frankie Fredericks of Namibia (19.68) and Ato Boldon of Trinidad (19.80). Not just in terms of gadget miniaturization, medical nanotechnology, increasingly sophisticated industrial electromechanical units and the process of so-called shrinkflation that leads our candy bars be thinner or shorter at the same price, but also data - data is getting smaller too. Data is getting smaller in two key senses: a) we are breaking down the component parts of application data flows into smaller containerized elements to work inside similarly compartmentalized and containerized application services – and b) the time windows within which business needs to react to data events is reducing. This latter time constraint on data of course leads us to the reality of real-time data and the need to be able to work with it.