Real-time data streaming for Excel

Bring live data from within the company into your spreadsheet with Instarange add-in and two simple formulas:

=Insta_PUB(Title, Sender, EncryptionKey)

=Insta_SUB(Range, Title, EncryptionKey)

Data is encrypted end-to-end and never stored anywhere outside of your organisation.. Create live consolidations, dashboards and reports. You can even create multi-user chat, or real time decision making tools and templates - all in Excel.

How does it work?

Instarange RT service relies on a messaging server implementing Advanced Message Queuing Protocol (AMQP). The working group governing the protocol comprises of 23 companies, including Bank of America, Barclays, Cisco Systems, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Borse Systems, Goldman Sachs and others. AMQP is backbone of many stock exchange systems and is renown for its speed, reliability and flexibility.

Instarange RT implements Publish/Subscribe pattern with the following flow:

  • Each message has unique ID ('routing key')
  • Publishers leave messages at the Exchange
  • Some messages are transient (white) and other are persistent (yellow)
  • Logged-in subscribers create own Queue to which messages instantly arrive
  • If there are no interested subscribers, transient messages are destroyed
  • Persistent messages are stored on your network share and can be retrieved later
  • No data is ever stored outside of your organisation
  • Messages in transit are encrypted twice: user encryption + SSL

Transient messages have a payload limit of 32Kb, roughly couple of towsand cells in Excel. Persistent ranges are stored locally on your network drive and have no size limit - the Instarange exchange transmits only metadata (title, sender, file name).

Wrap Up - March 2018

This startup from Johannesburg, Instarange (Pty) Ltd, is now defunct and the Instarange platform will soon be open-sourced.

For potential in-house implementation (sans platform customer management features), please contact admin _at_ instarange.com. The author's expertise is in banking/finance.