Another emerging trend—software-defined data centers, software-defined storage, and software-defined networking—promises to take this abstraction to a new level. Within a software-defined environment, services associated with data centers and database services—storage, data management, and provisioning—are abstracted into a virtual service layer. This means managing, configuring, and scaling data environments to meet new needs will increasingly be accomplished from a single control panel. It may take some time to reach this stage, as many of the components of software-defined environments are just starting to fall into place. Expect to see significant movement in this direction in 2015.
5-Data Managers and Professionals Will Lead the Drive to Secure Corporate Data
One need only look at recent headlines to understand the importance of data security—major enterprises have suffered data breaches over the past year, and in some cases, have taken CIOs and top executives down with them. The rise of big data and cloud, with their more complex integration requirements, accessibility, and device variety, has increased the need for greater attention to data security and data governance issues.
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Data security has evolved to that of a top business challenge, as villains take advantage of lax preventive and detective measures. In many ways, it has become an enterprise-wide issue in search of leadership. Senior executives are only too painfully aware of what’s at stake for their businesses, but often don’t know how to approach the challenge. This is an opportunity for database administrators and security professionals to work together, take a leadership role, and move the enterprise to take action.
Over the coming year, database managers and professionals will be called upon to be more proactive and lead their companies to successfully ensure data privacy, protect against insider threats, and address regulatory compliance. An annual survey by Unisphere Research for the Independent Oracle Users Group (IOUG) finds there is more awareness than ever of the critical need to lock down data environments, but also organizational hurdles in building awareness and budgetary support for enterprise data security (“DBA–Security Superhero: 2014 IOUG Enterprise Data Security Survey,” October 2014).
6-Mobile Becomes an Equal Client
Mobile computing is on the rise, and increasingly mobile devices will be the client of choice with enterprises in the year ahead. This means creating ways to access and work with data over mobile devices.