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For decades, data management was part of a clear and well-defined mission in organizations. Data was generated from transaction systems, then managed, stored, and secured within relational database management systems, with reports built and delivered to business decision makers’ specs.
This rock-solid foundation of skills, technologies, and priorities served enterprises well over the years. But lately, this arrangement has been changing dramatically. Driven by insatiable demand for IT services and data insights, as well as the proliferation of new data sources and formats, many organizations are embracing new technology and methods such as cloud, database as a service (DBaaS), and big data. And, increasingly, mobile isn’t part of a vendor’s pitch sheet, or futuristic overview at a conference presentation. It’s part of today’s reality, a part of everyday business. Many organizations are already providing faster delivery of applications, differentiated products and services, and some are building new customer experiences through social, mobile, analytics, and cloud.
Over the coming year—2015—we will likely see the acceleration of 7 dramatic shifts in data management:
1-More Automation to the Squeeze
There is a lot of demand coming from the user side, but data management professionals often find themselves in a squeeze. Business demand for database services as well as associated data volumes is growing at a rate of 20% a year on average, a survey by Unisphere Research finds. In contrast, most IT organizations are experiencing flat or shrinking budgets. Other factors such as substantial testing requirements and outdated management techniques are all contributing to a cost escalation and slow IT response.
Database professionals report that they spend more time managing database lifecycles than anything else. A majority still overwhelmingly perform a range of tasks manually, from patching databases to performing upgrades. Compliance remains important and requires attention. As databases move into virtualized and cloud environments, there will be a need for more comprehensive enterprise-wide testing. Another recent Unisphere Research study finds that for more than 50% of organizations, it takes their IT department 30 days or more to respond to new initiatives or deploy new solutions. For a quarter of organizations, it takes 90 days or more. In addition, more than two-thirds of organizations indicate that the number of databases they manage is expanding. The most pressing challenges they are facing as a result of this expansion are licensing costs, additional hardware and network costs, additional administration costs, and complexity (“The Empowered Database: 2014 Enterprise Platform Decisions Survey,” September 2014).
As data professionals find their time and resources squeezed between managing increasingly large and diverse data stores, increased user demands, and restrictive budgets, there will be greater efforts to automate data management tasks. Expect a big push to automation in the year ahead.