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DBTA 100 2025: The Companies That Matter Most in Data

Following the explosive growth of AI initiatives at all levels of various organizations last year, tech leaders have pinpointed digital trust as a crucial challenge in software development for 2025, according to the sixth annual "Reveal Survey Report: Top Software Development Challenges for 2025" survey from Infragistics. To help bring new resources and innovation to light, each year, Database Trends and Applications magazine presents the DBTA 100, a list of forward-thinking companies seeking to expand what's possible with data for their customers. Read More

AI in Disaster Recovery: Mapping Technical Capabilities to Real Business Value

AI is no longer a speculative technology; it is a practical tool with clear, transformative implications for cyber resilience (CR) and disaster recovery (DR). While AI's potential is often overstated, its measured and strategic application can directly address some of the most persistent challenges in safeguarding organizational data and ensuring business continuity. Read More

The Future of Work Is Accessible: What Apple’s WWDC 2025 Accessibility Features Mean for an Aging, Digital Workforce

As our lifespans stretch well beyond the traditional retirement horizon, the future of work is undergoing a profound transformation. With some individuals living well into their 110s—and babies born today potentially reaching 150—we're not just facing longer lives, but longer careers. Many of us may be working into our 80s or 90s. The implication is clear: technology must evolve to support not just the young and able but also the aging who will increasingly make up a significant portion of the global workforce. Read More

Pipe Dreams for the AI-Driven Enterprise—The Data Operating Fabric, Real-Time Data Streams, and AI Agents

It's been said that AI is only as good as the data fueling it. And that's true—to an extent. Having good data is important, but it is also useless if it's inaccessible. This explains why building the Data Operating Fabric—an intelligent platform that oversees and controls real-time data ecosystems to help businesses run more smoothly and drive better ROI—has become a priority for organizations as AI adoption continues to accelerate and new solutions, such as AI agents, come online. Read More

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Todd Schraml

Database Elaborations

Todd Schraml

  • What to Do When You Have Nothing Inside any database management system (DBMS), one can designate a specific data item as "null." The null represents the "existence" of a non-value, the nonexistence of a value, or…nothing. This sounds a bit like an oxymoron, a nonvalue value, but there it is. Each DBMS has its own implementation of null support, so what it does to be able to share with you that "there is no value" can differ. For example, rather than a value, there may be a group of bit flags associated with an individual data element, with one of those bits being an "I am null" flag. And because every DBMS has its own way of doing this, it is best not to think that by using a null, one is greatly saving on space usage. Space may be saved, or maybe not so much.
Recent articles: Todd Schraml
Craig S. Mullins

DBA Corner

Craig S. Mullins

  • Cloud Repatriation: Rethinking the Cloud-Only Strategy For several years now, cloud computing has been heralded as the ultimate solution for IT infrastructure, promising scalability, flexibility, and cost savings. Organizations of all sizes rushed to the cloud, enticed by its pay-as-you-go pricing and freedom from on-prem hardware constraints. However, an interesting shift is occurring: Some organizations are repatriating workloads from the cloud back to on-prem or hybrid environments. This phenomenon, known as cloud repatriation, is challenging the assumption that "cloud-first" is always the best strategy.
Recent articles: Craig S. Mullins
Kevin Kline

SQL Server Drill Down

Kevin Kline

  • Mastering Interpersonal Skills: The Hidden Growth Engine Driving SMB Success If you're reading this, you're likely an expert in something database related. You know everything there is to know about SQL, Microsoft Azure, data analytics, maybe more. Perhaps you're an IT specialist who knows your company's digital infrastructure from end to end. If you've spent some years in your role, you've realized that, in addition to your technical know-how, you've probably had to develop another set of skills—interpersonal ones.
Recent articles: Kevin Kline
  • The Future of Work Is Accessible: What Apple’s WWDC 2025 Accessibility Features Mean for an Aging, Digital Workforce As our lifespans stretch well beyond the traditional retirement horizon, the future of work is undergoing a profound transformation. With some individuals living well into their 110s—and babies born today potentially reaching 150—we're not just facing longer lives, but longer careers. Many of us may be working into our 80s or 90s. The implication is clear: technology must evolve to support not just the young and able but also the aging who will increasingly make up a significant portion of the global workforce.
Recent articles:  
  • Will AI Become Our Friend or Foe? Technology Professionals Weigh In. Picture this: there's a new face in the IT department, ready to step in to help tackle the increasingly complex challenges caused by modern hybrid on-prem and multi-cloud environments. Overstretched technology teams always appreciate an extra set of helping hands, but what happens when this new team member isn't human—but artificial intelligence (AI)?
Recent articles:  

Trends and Applications