DBTA E-EDITION
November 2021
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Trends and Applications
The value of analytics is fairly easy to realize when implemented correctly. As businesses start to see increased operational efficiency, more successful marketing campaigns, improved customer retention, and many other benefits, adoption will continue to improve and analytics will soon be driving the decision making of the entire organization.
We can count on seeing more cyberattacks and there are two reasons for that. First, as AI becomes more ubiquitous and embedded in our everyday lives, it presents yet another threat surface hackers will seek to exploit to wreak havoc at scale. More AI, more attacks. Second, the Silicon Valley "move fast and break things" model has meant that historically teams have pushed a lot of code into production without putting security guard rails in place. The same thing is now happening with AI. We're so focused on getting novel capabilities into production—that we prioritize first-to-market movements over security, leaving the door open for exploitation.
Cloud migration benefits center primarily around increased efficiency. The ideal results of a successful cloud migration yield a more intelligent allocation of resources that allows companies to focus on their core competencies. Within that, successful migrations reduce IT costs, improve the end-user experience and increase scalability and security. Once adopted, cloud computing users can reduce capital expenditures and decrease maintenance and operational costs—ensuring maximum results with minimal expenses. However, not every migration is successful, and the process can be complex, leading to mistakes that can hinder the journey and incur negative ramifications.
Data governance used to be relatively simple to define; it originally required handling data quality, metadata management, discovery, and classification. But traditional data governance has its limits—it doesn't take security into account and often leaves companies, customers and data at risk. Companies struggle to protect access to sensitive data—in fact, this is the leading cause of cyberattacks almost every year.
Columns - Database Elaborations
When normalizing data structures, attributes congregate around the business keys that identify the grain at which those attributes derive their values. Attributes directly related to a person, deriving their value from that individual, will appear on an Employee entity, or a Customer entity, and so forth. However, in the process of normalizing, the data modeler must identify the objects that are meaningful and useful to the organization
Columns - DBA Corner
Once data has been created, it gets moved around to support many different purposes. There are many techniques that can be used to facilitate data movement. One of the simplest ways for the DBA to move data from one place to another is to use the LOAD and UNLOAD utilities that come with the DBMS. The LOAD utility is used to populate tables with new data (or to add to existing data), and the UNLOAD utility is used to read data from a table and put it into a data file. Each DBMS may call the actual utilities by different names, but the functionality is the same or similar from product to product.
Columns - MongoDB Matters
One of the big-ticket items at the recent MongoDB 5.0 launch was the introduction of specialized "time-series" collections. The key concept in a time-series database is that, for a lot of data, the timestamp of the data is a critical element, both in terms of operational cost and analytic value. Time-series collections represent another attempt by the MongoDB company to extend the use of MongoDB to a wider set of applications and scenarios. They are a welcome addition.
MV Community
BlueFinity Evoke continues to evolve the low-code MV platform space, designed so that there is absolutely no limit to either the degree of customization or the potential and scalability of the apps created. A good low-code platform will offer an easy-to-use development methodology with familiar drag and drop, option select and point and click techniques which can make them suitable for the design and creation of mobile apps and applications to be developed by their own existing staff (citizen developers as well as technical professionals), according to the vendor.
Entrinsik is actively working on Informer 5.5, adding many new features that bolster ease of use and global adoption. The company showcased an early access build of Informer 5.5 to its Informer Advisory Council members, which was met with great enthusiasm and excitement for what is in store, according to Madhavi Chandra, director of Informer product management.
Rocket Software, a global technology leader, is acquiring the MV databases and tools of Zumasys, Inc., a provider of MultiValue database software also known as PICK, enabling Zumasys to become an MV Modernization Partner to expand Zumasys' practice of acquiring MultiValue independent software vendors (ISVs) to modernize and market their applications.