Real-Time Innovations, Inc.

Real-Time Innovations, Inc., headquartered in Sunnyvale, California, sells Connext Data Distribution Service (DDS) software middleware, developer subscriptions, software licenses, and maintenance support to the federal government, operating primarily as a prime contractor (83% of awards) across defense and civilian agencies. The company competes on a full-and-open basis without set-aside designations, though it qualifies for and has won Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I and Phase II awards under total small business set-asides.

RTI's capability portfolio centers on real-time data distribution middleware enabling mission-critical command and control, battle management systems, and networked defense applications. Representative work includes a $2.61 million engineering support services contract with NASA for Launch Control System integration at Kennedy Space Center (FY2022–FY2025); multiple $1.25 million SBIR Phase II awards from the Air Force Research Laboratory for data-centric distributed architectures and advanced sensor processing frameworks; and a recurring pattern of Navy purchase orders for Connext DDS Professional, Secure, and CORBA Compatibility subscriptions supporting ship systems, unmanned surface vehicles, and combat system integration.

Customer concentration is heavily skewed to the Navy. The top five funding agencies by award count account for 65% of awards, led by Naval Sea Systems Command with 279 awards ($24.9 million combined potential value), followed by Naval Air Systems Command Naval Air Warfare Center (55 awards, $2.2 million), Naval Information Warfare Systems Command (33 awards, $1.7 million), Air Force Research Laboratory (32 awards, $13.9 million), and NASA Shared Services Center (31 awards, $1.1 million). By potential value, however, the distribution diverges sharply: the Department of the Air Force anchors $950 million (50% of all potential value) through a single Joint All Domain Command and Control Support multiple-award indefinite delivery contract awarded June 9, 2022, with ultimate completion May 28, 2030, followed distantly by Naval Sea Systems Command and Air Force Research Laboratory. RTI also holds a $900 million Air Force Life Cycle Management Center Architecture and Integration Directorate IDIQ (December 9, 2022 through November 14, 2027) and a recent $151 billion Missile Defense Agency Scalable Homeland Innovative Enterprise Layered Defense (SHIELD) multiple-award IDIQ (December 29, 2025 through December 28, 2035), though only a $500 initial order has been placed under SHIELD to date.

Activity has grown substantially. Awards climbed from 34 in 2022 to 76 in 2024, then plateaued at 69 in 2025; 13 awards have been recorded so far in 2026 (as of September 1, 2026). Over the next twenty-four months, only 10 awards with combined potential value of $785 thousand face ultimate completion, indicating low recompete exposure in the near term. The vendor's 662 total awards span 57 distinct federal customer agencies; software publishing and IT software dominate the NAICS and PSC mix, with 265 and 75 awards respectively under Software Publishers classifications.

RTI operates as a prime on the majority of its work (551 of 662 awards) but subcontracts to major systems integrators on defense programs. Named sub relationships include work under Lockheed Martin (numerous modifications and renewals for combat system development, advanced capability builds, and O&M maintenance supporting RTI DDS and related libraries), Northrop Grumman Systems (software modifications for integrated battle command and Electronic Warfare Self-Protection Block 3), Raytheon (network software and computer science for risk management frameworks, DDG 1000 systems engineering, and cooperative engagement capability design), Science Applications International Corporation (HWIL aviation systems engineering on GSA OASIS UR Pool 5A), and Torch Technologies (engineering services for aviation and missile simulation and analysis on GSA OASIS SB Pool 5B). Across these primes, RTI delivers its proprietary Connext DDS platform, runtime licenses, developer subscriptions, and customer target library maintenance.

The Service Contract Inventory dataset shows minimal invoiced revenue ($0 reported across FY2022–FY2025 prime records), reflecting RTI's business model: most federal revenue flows through software licensing and perpetual-license subscriptions (purchase orders and task orders) rather than labor-hour service contracts above the SCI $150,000 threshold. SCI records span 6 entries (5 prime, 1 named subcontractor) with 0.6 FTEs recorded in FY2025; this is a strict subset of RTI's federal services activity and does not represent company-wide headcount or enterprise revenue.

RTI Connext DDS is the first intelligent connectivity framework designed to control, monitor, secure and optimize demanding industrial IoT systems.

Connext DDS Professional is the leading connectivity framework for demanding IIoT systems. It shares information between devices and applications in real-time, delivering performance, reliability, scalability and security while reducing development and integration time.