New York Hilton Midtown
It all used to be so simple. There were relational databases and they were all on-premises. But today it is an increasingly hybrid world, with virtualization and Hadoop arguably the source of the most dramatic technology shifts of the past 10 years.
At Data Summit 2017, Unisphere Research lead analyst and DBTA contributor Joe McKendrick will moderate tracks packed with sessions that examine these two critical technology trends during Hadoop Day on Tuesday, May 16, and Virtualization Day on Wednesday, May 17, at the New York Hilton Midtown.
The entire technology world is evolving at an incredible rate, representing a dramatic time in the data space, McKendrick reflected. “Until recently, people have made entire careers specializing in the judicious handling and organizing of data. Now, they are being called up to be guiding lights, and even provocateurs, for their larger businesses. Why? Because no matter what industry you are in—whether it's manufacturing tires, running fisheries, or selling snacks—your company is in the data business. It was famously said a few years ago that ‘software is eating the world.’ Yes, software may be eating everything, but data is converting those digested morsels into the fuel and energy that keeps our corporate bodies running. Your business wants—make that ‘is desperate’—to know how it can succeed with data.”
There are three major forces that have been sweeping through the data space, changing our assumptions about everything, and changing our priorities, said McKendrick. “First, there's been the rise of open source solutions. We've had a lot of data floating around for many years, being spit out by many existing devices and systems. But it's always been too expensive to do anything with the data. Thanks to open source, there's a place to load the data and run some interesting analytics.”
Second, he said, there has been the rise of cloud. “If your organization doesn't have the resources—or the desire—to set up big Hadoop clusters, or fuss with Apache Spark, there are services in the cloud that will do that for you. There are even cloud-based data warehouses now, so you no longer have to have a scrap of server metal in your building to have these things.”
And third, said McKendrick, there's the ever-growing advancement of the Internet of Things. “Data management is no longer about what's in your database or server or in your storage arrays. Data management now could mean drinking in data streams from all across the globe. Suddenly, data managers need to be customer service or customer relations people as well, as they now could be monitoring production adoption 24x7. Customers are no longer some remote buyers at the end of the value chain—they need to be close partners with data managers on a regular, ongoing basis.
It is important that businesses not delay and become knowledgeable about these issues now, McKendrick advised. “Organizations cannot afford to sit and wait for their data professionals to get up to speed with the latest thinking and breakthroughs,” he said. “The world and markets are changing fast, and are unforgiving. Data-savvy companies will succeed, but their executives are going to need a lot of hand-holding and convincing. In the process, this is going to make for great career opportunities for data professionals. But this all has to start now.”
Data Summit 2017 takes place May 16-17 at the New York Hilton Midtown, with pre-conference workshops on May 15. To register, go here.