Powering instant, reliable experiences at scale: Reltio Lightspeed Data Delivery Network

Traditional data unification solutions such as master data management (MDM) have long faced challenges with performance bottlenecks, inefficient query execution, and rigid architectures that fail to support modern enterprise needs. In today’s hyper-connected world, engagement is no longer a passive, rearview-mirror activity—it happens in real-time, across edge devices such as laptops, smartphones, tablets, and even connected cars. Customers, suppliers, and business partners expect seamless, instant access to core enterprise data at the point of interaction, but today’s APIs often suffer from high database contention, slow response times, and excessive reliance on synchronous processing.

Current architectures force enterprises to spend heavily on custom-built solutions just to enable real-time experiences—yet they still struggle with data fragmentation, poor availability, and unpredictable latencies. The problem isn’t just accessing data—it’s where and how fast it can be delivered to the right digital experience.

This is where Reltio Lightspeed Data Delivery Network (Reltio Lightspeed) introduces a paradigm shift—an ultra-fast, distributed data delivery engine that ensures core enterprise data is instantly accessible at the edge. By bringing high-quality, well-governed master data closer to applications and services, it eliminates bottlenecks and delivers sub-50ms API responses across hybrid and multicloud environments. Reltio Lightspeed removes the complexity of data access, making real-time engagement frictionless, scalable, and cost-effective.

Why traditional MDM APIs struggle

REST-based MDM APIs are built on a request-response model that interacts directly with a central database for every lookup. While functionally sufficient, this approach introduces several technical constraints:

1. High query latency – Since each API request triggers a direct database query, performance is affected by indexing limitations, disk I/O speed, and network round-trip delays. Queries involving complex joins, hierarchical relationships, or predicate-based filtering further increase response time.
2. Limited scalability – As data volume grows, APIs experience degraded performance due to increasing index size and data retrieval overhead. Without a distributed strategy, API servers risk becoming single points of failure (SPOFs).
3. Redundant data fetching & inefficient query execution – Most traditional APIs do not leverage intelligent caching or pre-fetching mechanisms, leading to repeated lookups of the same dataset. This results in high computational cost and unnecessary database load.
4. Cross-region latency issues – Organizations operating in a multicloud or hybrid-cloud setup often experience slow response times when accessing remote datasets, particularly when data is stored in a different region than the requesting application.

To address these issues, Reltio Lightspeed completely rethinks how MDM systems store, index, retrieve, and serve data.

Reltio Lightspeed: Redefining data access

Reltio Lightspeed does not follow a traditional API framework—it is a high-performance data delivery fabric designed with principles of distributed indexing, intelligent caching, query acceleration, and multi-region data replication.

How Reltio Lightspeed ensures high performance

Instead of treating every API call as a standalone database query, Reltio Lightspeed optimizes data flow through a multi-layered architecture consisting of:

1. Latency-optimized query processing

Reltio Lightspeed does not rely on raw database queries for every lookup. Instead, it maintains an intelligent indexed data store optimized for fast reads, minimal storage overhead, and distributed query execution.

• Indexing at the attribute level – Instead of indexing entire records, Reltio Lightspeed creates fine-grained indexes at the attribute level, allowing for selective query optimization. This ensures that indexed attributes can be queried efficiently.
• Sparse indexing for storage efficiency – Unlike traditional full-text indexes that consume large amounts of disk space, Reltio Lightspeed uses sparse indexing, which optimizes storage and lookup speeds simultaneously.
• Distributed sharding for scalability – The system dynamically splits large datasets across multiple nodes across the globe, ensuring that query loads are evenly distributed and scaling remains linear even at billions of records.

2. Ultra-fast distributed data access

Reltio Lightspeed Data Delivery Network ensures that data is always available at the fastest possible access point, eliminating unnecessary latency. Unlike traditional APIs that rely on multiple database calls or inefficient routing, Lightspeed optimizes data placement, ensuring queries are served from the nearest, most efficient location.

By keeping data closer to applications, Lightspeed reduces the need for manual query tuning, complex indexing, or cross-region retrieval. Instead of focusing on data fetching, enterprises can leverage real-time, high-speed access to critical business data—anytime, anywhere.

3. High-performance distributed caching

Reltio Lightspeed Data Delivery Network accelerates data access by minimizing direct database interactions through a highly efficient distributed caching layer. This ensures low-latency, high-speed access to frequently used data, even for applications operating across globally distributed environments.

• In-memory query caching – Frequently accessed query results are stored in-memory using a high-performance caching architecture, reducing database round trips and significantly improving API response times.
• Geo-distributed cache nodes – Instead of relying on a single centralized cache, Reltio Lightspeed deploys regionally optimized cache nodes, ensuring API requests are served from the closest available data store, reducing latency to deliver data anywhere in the world.
• Cache expiry and consistency management – A time-to-live (TTL) policy ensures that cached data remains fresh and synchronized, preventing stale or inconsistent reads across distributed instances.

Why Reltio Lightspeed is the future of MDM data access

Reltio Lightspeed isn’t just a faster API—it is a fundamental shift in how enterprises interact with their master data.

• Unmatched performance – Enables sub-50ms response times for complex queries.
• Intelligent query acceleration – Query optimizations reduce redundant database queries.
• Edge-aware and multicloud ready: Ensures high availability across AWS and GCP (Azure coming soon).
• Enterprise-grade security – Fully compliant with GDPR, CCPA, SOC 2, HIPAA, and financial industry standards.

Learn more

Reltio Lightspeed is redefining how enterprises access, manage, and utilize master data. Want to see how it works for you? Request a demo with our team to explore how ultra-fast, real-time data delivery can enhance operational efficiency and support modern digital experiences.