Real Story Group — Real-Time-ish: The Myth of Instant CDP Activation

source.realstorygroup-com.blog-real-time-ish-myth-instant-cdp-activation-2025 ↗

Independent analyst article by Apoorv Durga (VP Research & Advisory, Real Story Group) exposing the gap between CDP vendor real-time claims and actual implementation cadences. Documents the 'batch in the middle' phenomenon: enrichment and segmentation run on schedules (overnight or hourly), identity stitching may run hourly, resulting in audience refreshes that are daily or weekly even when event ingestion is real-time. Recommends sub-500ms SLA only for specific high-value events. Vendor-neutral; Real Story Group is an independent analyst firm.