Let’s Drain the Database Swamp! (Okay, Just Kidding)

B. Shimmin

Summary Bullets:

• Enterprise buyers looking to simplify their data integration woes through centralization are missing the value inherent in diversity.
• Database diversity (actually diversity across all workloads) should not only be welcomed but actually sought after as a means of blending opportunity with capability.

Back in the ‘90s, the average enterprise maintained not one, not two, but seven databases on average: one for transactional information, one for data mining cubes, one for server logs, etc. Today, that has grown dramatically thanks to the proliferation of NoSQL-style databases built to handle unstructured, semi-structured and polymorphic data. Add to this the ever-expanding list of data storage options across public cloud data platforms, and you’ve an honest to goodness embarrassment of riches.