This document discusses building a real-time analytics platform on big data in the cloud. It outlines the need to move from batch processing to real-time analytics using approaches like streaming analytics and in-memory analytics. It provides examples of software that can be used for these approaches. The document also presents a reference architecture for a real-time analytics strategy, including components for data ingestion, processing, storage and business rules management. Impetus is introduced as a company that provides consulting and services for big data analytics.