Patent attributes
Watermarking of an ordered event stream (OES) is disclosed. Writing events to an OES can advance populating of the OES, which can be correspond to progress values. Progress values can enable a reader to know where it is in an OES. A reported progress value can be determined from the progress values based on an event being committed to the OES. Moreover, an effective progress value can be determined from the progress values and monitoring the OES for events with that defer being committed to the OES. A watermark for the OES can be determined from the effective progress value such that reading beyond the effective progress value is restricted. This can provide confidence that the reader has read out properly committed events and has not omitted any events having deferred commitment.