DBTA 100 2025: The Companies That Matter Most in Data

Following the explosive growth of AI initiatives at all levels of various organizations last year, tech leaders have pinpointed digital trust as a crucial challenge in software development for 2025, according to the sixth annual "Reveal Survey Report: Top Software Development Challenges for 2025" survey from Infragistics. To help bring new resources and innovation to light, each year, Database Trends and Applications magazine presents the DBTA 100, a list of forward-thinking companies seeking to expand what's possible with data for their customers. Read More

Cloudflare Rolls Out Setting to Automatically Block AI Companies from Collecting Users’ Digital Data

Cloudflare, Inc., the leading connectivity cloud company, announced it is blocking AI crawlers from accessing content without permission or compensation, by default—becoming the first Internet infrastructure provider to do so. Starting today, website owners can choose if they want AI crawlers to access their content and decide how AI companies can use it. Read More

Game-Changing Technologies in 2025 and Beyond

Change is happening, and it's happening so fast that even the most seasoned data managers and professionals can't keep up. New technologies, along with new approaches to data management, are restructuring—and reimagining—data-related jobs. Industry leaders are expressing astonishment at the speed in which the data world is changing. "I'm witnessing something that's going to make everything different," said Milan Parikh, lead enterprise architect at Cytel. Read More

Mastering Interpersonal Skills: The Hidden Growth Engine Driving SMB Success

If you're reading this, you're likely an expert in something database related. You know everything there is to know about SQL, Microsoft Azure, data analytics, maybe more. Perhaps you're an IT specialist who knows your company's digital infrastructure from end to end. If you've spent some years in your role, you've realized that, in addition to your technical know-how, you've probably had to develop another set of skills—interpersonal ones. Read More

Webinars

More Webinars

Columnists

Database Elaborations

Todd Schraml

What to Do When You Have Nothing Inside any database management system (DBMS), one can designate a specific data item as "null." The null represents the "existence" of a non-value, the nonexistence of a value, or…nothing. This sounds a bit like an oxymoron, a nonvalue value, but there it is. Each DBMS has its own implementation of null support, so what it does to be able to share with you that "there is no value" can differ. For example, rather than a value, there may be a group of bit flags associated with an individual data element, with one of those bits being an "I am null" flag. And because every DBMS has its own way of doing this, it is best not to think that by using a null, one is greatly saving on space usage. Space may be saved, or maybe not so much.

DBA Corner

Craig S. Mullins

Cloud Repatriation: Rethinking the Cloud-Only Strategy For several years now, cloud computing has been heralded as the ultimate solution for IT infrastructure, promising scalability, flexibility, and cost savings. Organizations of all sizes rushed to the cloud, enticed by its pay-as-you-go pricing and freedom from on-prem hardware constraints. However, an interesting shift is occurring: Some organizations are repatriating workloads from the cloud back to on-prem or hybrid environments. This phenomenon, known as cloud repatriation, is challenging the assumption that "cloud-first" is always the best strategy.

SQL Server Drill Down

Kevin Kline

Mastering Interpersonal Skills: The Hidden Growth Engine Driving SMB Success If you're reading this, you're likely an expert in something database related. You know everything there is to know about SQL, Microsoft Azure, data analytics, maybe more. Perhaps you're an IT specialist who knows your company's digital infrastructure from end to end. If you've spent some years in your role, you've realized that, in addition to your technical know-how, you've probably had to develop another set of skills—interpersonal ones.

Emerging Technologies

The Future of Work Is Accessible: What Apple’s WWDC 2025 Accessibility Features Mean for an Aging, Digital Workforce As our lifespans stretch well beyond the traditional retirement horizon, the future of work is undergoing a profound transformation. With some individuals living well into their 110s—and babies born today potentially reaching 150—we're not just facing longer lives, but longer careers. Many of us may be working into our 80s or 90s. The implication is clear: technology must evolve to support not just the young and able but also the aging who will increasingly make up a significant portion of the global workforce.

Next-Gen Data Management

Will AI Become Our Friend or Foe? Technology Professionals Weigh In. Picture this: there's a new face in the IT department, ready to step in to help tackle the increasingly complex challenges caused by modern hybrid on-prem and multi-cloud environments. Overstretched technology teams always appreciate an extra set of helping hands, but what happens when this new team member isn't human—but artificial intelligence (AI)?