Data enables many types of business opportunities unimaginable even a few years ago – from predictive analytics, to artificial intelligence, to the Internet of Things. These new developments are making it critical to take in lots of data feeds, pull the points that are of material importance and engage with them in real time. Until recently, most data was generated for a single objective and difficult to repurpose. Much of it even ended up on tapes stored in a basement. The bottom line is that it was inaccessible to decision makers when the information was needed.
A new generation of database tools and platforms is changing all that. There are now a variety of tools, platforms and frameworks available to enterprises to better manage their data, including Hadoop, Spark, object storage and machine learning. In March 2018, Unisphere Research fielded a study amongst the readers of Database Trends and Applications to explore the roles of new technology initiatives in managing and making this data actionable for businesses. This study, sponsored by Oracle, includes the views and experiences of 200+ IT decision makers, representing a broad sample of company types and sizes.