Scheduled batch vs real-time streaming: freshness you don't need is just cost.

Scheduled batch vs real-time streaming: freshness you don't need is just cost.

CONFIRMED: the reflex to make everything real-time burns money and complexity for use-cases that never needed it. A nightly batch is cheaper, easier to debug, and trivially re-runnable. Streaming is for when staleness has a real cost.

The question we hear ops leads ask:
— Does a 6-hour-old number change a decision? If no, batch it.
— Is someone watching a dashboard or getting paged off this? Then stream.

Real-time everything is a flex, not a strategy. Most of your pipeline can sleep until 3am. Watch this.