Batch processing
Processing transactions in a group or batch. No user interaction is required once batch processing is underway. This differentiates batch processing from transaction processing, which involves processing transactions one at a time and requires user interaction. While batch processing can be carried out at any time, it is particularly suited to end-of-cycle processing, such as for processing a bank's reports at the end of a day, or generating monthly or bi-weekly payrolls.
Batch processing has these benefits:
- It allows sharing of computer resources among many users and programs,
- It shifts the time of job processing to when the computing resources are less busy,
- It avoids idling the computing resources with minute-by-minute manual intervention and supervision,
- By keeping high overall rate of utilization, it better amortizes the cost of a computer, especially an expensive one.
Common batch processing usage:
Databases:
Batch processing is also used for efficient bulk database updates and automated transaction processing, as contrasted to interactive online transaction processing (OLTP) applications. The extract, transform, load (ETL) step in populating data warehouses is inherently a batch process in most implementations.
Images:
Batch processing is often used to perform various operations with digital images such as resize, convert, watermark, or otherwise edit image files.
Conversions:
Batch processing may also be used for converting computer files from one format to another. For example a batch job may convert proprietary and legacy files to common standard formats for end-user queries and display.
Databases:
Batch processing is also used for efficient bulk database updates and automated transaction processing, as contrasted to interactive online transaction processing (OLTP) applications. The extract, transform, load (ETL) step in populating data warehouses is inherently a batch process in most implementations.
Images:
Batch processing is often used to perform various operations with digital images such as resize, convert, watermark, or otherwise edit image files.
Conversions:
Batch processing may also be used for converting computer files from one format to another. For example a batch job may convert proprietary and legacy files to common standard formats for end-user queries and display.