The data manager now sits in the center of a revolution swirling about enterprises. In today’s up-and-down global economy, opportunities and threats are coming in from a number of directions.
Business leaders recognize that the key to success in hyper-competitive markets is the ability to leverage data to draw insights that predict and provide prescriptive action to stay ahead of markets and customer preferences. For that, they need to keep up with the latest solutions and approaches in data management.
What are the key technology developments being seen in data-savvy enterprises this year? There are some familiar ones that still dominate, as well as a new breed of solutions that promise to disrupt the data center as we know it.
12 Key Technologies Gaining Ground
Here are 12 of the key technologies turning heads—or potentially opening enterprise wallets—in today’s data centers:
Data Lakes
Data lakes provide a way for organizations to rapidly ingest and store data assets from any and all sources as they arise, without the immediate need for integration or extract, transform, and load solutions. In today’s rapidly evolving analytics and business intelligence space, users are getting comfortable with the notion of asking questions of data that have never been pondered before. With a vast set of data now quickly accessible, new forms of querying and reporting can be constructed.
By deploying data lakes, data can be held at the ready for indefinite periods as analytical applications evolve. A survey of 385 data managers, conducted by Unisphere Research, a division of Information Today, Inc., finds that 20% of organizations are implementing data lakes, and another 51% report they are researching the approach (“Data Lake Adoption and Maturity Survey Findings Report,” October 2015).
The challenge for data managers will be ensuring adequate governance over the data assets being maintained within the data lake.
Virtual Reality
Virtual reality, or VR, is not a core part of enterprise culture yet, but look for business-centric implementations to begin hitting the market soon. The potential use of VR for a range of functions—from surgery to parts repair to building maintenance—is vast.
Making VR possible at many levels is the real-time deployment of data to add context and meaning to projects. For example, a technician viewing a malfunctioning machine part may be able to view, in 3D, instructions and parts needed to address the problem.
The challenge for data managers will be identifying the areas likely for adoption by the business to enable the intelligence of VR implementations.
Cloud
Cloud computing has been part of the enterprise scene for several years now and will continue to offer a way to scale large datasets on demand. There are various applications that provide immense resources to data shops, such as backup as a service, or database as a service (cited as a separate category, below).