Key findings from a new study, "Big Data Opportunities," will be presented at Big Data Boot Camp at the Hilton New York. Big Data Boot Camp will kick off at 9 am on Tuesday, May 21, with a keynote from John O'Brien, founder and principal of Radiant Advisors, on the dynamics and current issues being faced in today's big data analytic implementations. Directly after the opening address, David Jonker, senior director of Big Data Marketing, SAP, will showcase the results of the new big data survey, which revealed a variety of practical approaches that organizations are adopting to manage and capitalize on big data. The study was conducted by Unisphere Research, a division of Information Today, Inc., and sponsored by SAP.

NuoDB, Inc., a provider of a cloud data management system offering SQL compliance and guaranteed ACID transactions, has introduced the NuoDB Starlings Release 1.1. Following on from its 1.0 release in January, NuoDB's Starlings Release 1.1 focuses on overall usability in three key areas, Seth Proctor, NuoDB chief architect, tells 5 Minute Briefing. The enhancements focus on greater Microsoft Windows support, general performance and stability, and an improved development and management experience in the web console, says Proctor.

Data is not sedentary. Once data has been created, organizations tend to move it around to support many different purposes—different applications, different geographies, different users, different computing environments, and different DBMSs. Data is copied and transformed and cleansed and duplicated and stored many times throughout the organization. Different copies of the same data are used to support transaction processing and analysis; test, quality assurance, and operational systems; day-to-day operations and reporting; data warehouses, data marts, and data mining; and distributed databases. Controlling this vast sea of data falls on the DBA who uses many techniques and technologies to facilitate data movement and distribution.

When you decide to undertake your own benchmarking project, it's a strongly recommended best practice to write up a benchmarking plan. A benchmark must produce results that are both reliable and repeatable so that we can foster conclusions that are predictable and actionable. Keeping the "reliable and repeatable" mantra in mind necessitates a few extra steps.

Cloud computing has become a mainstream business technology strategy that is delivering the agility and flexibility that businesses need to move forward. To meet the requirements cloud brings to enterprises, new breeds of databases are emerging—either running in the cloud, or designed to optimize enterprise cloud computing.

Confio Software released version 8.3 of its Ignite database performance monitoring software at COLLABORATE 13 this week. Ignite 8.3 enhancements were developed specifically to address the needs of DBAs with very large database deployments spread out geographically as well as enterprise-level requirements for security and compliance, Don Bergal, chief marketing officer of Confio, tells DBTA.

Memory-based storage system provider Violin Memory Inc. and SAP AG have announced that Violin 6000 Series Flash Memory Arrays are now certified for interoperability with SAP Sybase Adaptive Server Enterprise (SAP Sybase ASE), providing reliability and increased performance across a range of enterprise applications. Together, these solutions will provide enhanced and simplified solutions that leverage the power of Violin Flash Memory Arrays and business-critical SAP applications to accelerate transaction-driven environments.

Continuent, Inc., a provider of clustering and replication solutions , has announced the availability of completely open-sourced Tungsten Replicator 2.1. This release includes previously closed-source capabilities to extract data in real time from Oracle EE and SE servers, including RAC.

Cloud computing has become a mainstream business technology strategy that is delivering the agility and flexibility that businesses need to move forward. To meet the requirements cloud brings to enterprises, new breeds of databases are emerging—either running in the cloud, or designed to optimize enterprise cloud computing.

"Big data" and the impact of analytics on large quantities of data is a persistent meme in today's Information Technology market. One of the big questions looming in IT departments about big data is what, exactly, does it mean in terms of management and administration. Will traditional data management concepts such as data modeling, database administration, data quality, data governance, and data stewardship apply in the new age of big data? According to analysts at Wikibon, big data refers to datasets whose size, type and speed of creation make it impractical to process and analyze with traditional tools . So, given that definition, it would seem that traditional concepts are at the very least "impractical," right?

Oracle announced the availability of the Oracle Big Data Appliance X3-2 Starter Rack and Oracle Big Data Appliance X3-2 In-Rack Expansion. The new Oracle Big Data Appliance X3-2 Starter Rack is intended to help customers jump start their first big data projects and the new Oracle Big Data Appliance X3-2 In-Rack Expansion is aimed at helping them cost-effectively scale the system as their data grows. In addition, the Oracle Big Data Appliance X3-2 (Full Rack configuration) is now available through Oracle Infrastructure as a Service.

Confio Software released version 8.3 of its Ignite database performance monitoring software at COLLABORATE 13 this week. Ignite 8.3 enhancements were developed specifically to address the needs of DBAs with very large database deployments spread out geographically as well as enterprise-level requirements for security and compliance, Don Bergal, chief marketing officer of Confio, tells DBTA.

GenieDB, a provider of distributed relational database technology, has announced the availability of its "Worldwide Database" in the Rackspace Cloud Tools Marketplace. GenieDB works alongside standard MySQL to provide a cloud-enabled platform, distributed across multiple geographies and clouds, and delivering high availability and local performance levels to users anywhere in the world.

New technologies designed to help companies and governments tackle big data have been unveiled by IBM. The new technologies include the new IBM PureData System for Hadoop, designed to make it easier and faster to deploy Hadoop in the enterprise, and "BLU Acceleration," which is aimed at improving analytical performance in data management systems.

Oracle CEO Larry Ellison announced a complete refresh of Oracle's midrange and high-end SPARC server lines. Unveiled during a live webcast, the new SPARC T5 and M5 servers join the SPARC T4 servers to complete Oracle's SPARC family, spanning entry-level, midrange and high-end.

The Independent Oracle Users Group (IOUG) will celebrate its 20th anniversary at COLLABORATE 13, a conference on Oracle technology presented jointly by the IOUG, OAUG (Oracle Applications User Group) and the Quest International User Group. The event will be held April 7 to 11 at the Colorado Convention Center in Denver. As part of the conference, the IOUG will host the COLLABORATE 13-IOUG Forum with nearly 1,000 sessions providing user-driven content. The theme of this year's COLLABORATE 13-IOUG Forum is "Elevate - take control of your career and elevate your Oracle ecosystem knowledge and expertise," says IOUG president John Matelski.

Embarcadero Technologies, a provider of software solutions for application and database development, has introduced DB PowerStudio XE3.5, the latest release of the company's database management and development platform. DB PowerStudio XE3.5 is a key component of Embarcadero's new metadata governance platform, which allows organizations to leverage diverse data across information management and the software development lifecycle for data governance initiatives.

Oracle CEO Larry Ellison announced a complete refresh of Oracle's midrange and high-end SPARC server lines. Unveiled during a live webcast, the new SPARC T5 and M5 servers join the SPARC T4 servers to complete Oracle's SPARC family, spanning entry-level, midrange and high-end.

Two big questions are on the minds of data professionals these days. How are increasing complexity and the inevitable onslaught of big data shaping the future of database administrators and data architects? How will our roles change? In the interest of studying the evolving landscape of data, the Independent Oracle User's Group (IOUG) took the pulse of the community. The Big Data Skills for Success study polled numerous individuals in the IOUG Oracle technology community, to identify just how the responsibilities of handling data are changing and what the future of these roles looks like.

When data professionals think about regulatory compliance we tend to consider only data in our production databases. After all, it is this data that runs our business and that must be protected. So we work to implement database auditing to know who did what to which data when; or we tackle database security and data protection initiatives to protect our data from prying eyes; or we focus on improving data quality to ensure the accuracy of our processes.

Application Security, Inc., a provider of enterprise database security solutions, has released a new, built-in policy for FedRAMP in the SHATTER Knowledgebase KB 4.25 release. This will provide cloud service providers with a simplified process to become part of the Federal Risk and Authorization Program (FedRAMP).

Embarcadero Technologies, a provider of software solutions for application and database development, has introduced DB PowerStudio XE3.5, the latest release of the company's database management and development platform. DB PowerStudio XE3.5 is a key component of Embarcadero's new metadata governance platform, which allows organizations to leverage diverse data across information management and the software development lifecycle for data governance initiatives.

The Independent Oracle Users Group (IOUG) will celebrate its 20th anniversary at COLLABORATE 13, a conference on Oracle technology presented jointly by the IOUG, OAUG (Oracle Applications User Group) and the Quest International User Group. The event will be held April 7 to 11 at the Colorado Convention Center in Denver. As part of the conference, the IOUG will host the COLLABORATE 13-IOUG Forum with nearly 1,000 sessions providing user-driven content. The theme of this year's COLLABORATE 13-IOUG Forum is "Elevate - take control of your career and elevate your Oracle ecosystem knowledge and expertise," says IOUG president John Matelski.

Two columns ago, I described how the TPC benchmarks are useful for getting a general idea of the performance characteristics of your preferred database vendor and hardware platform. And in last month's column, I described how the published TPC benchmarks can even help with pricing, especially when you don't have your own quantity discounts in place.

The Independent Oracle Users Group (IOUG) will celebrate its 20th anniversary at COLLABORATE 13, a conference on Oracle technology presented jointly by the IOUG, OAUG (Oracle Applications User Group) and the Quest International User Group. The event will be held April 7 to 11 at the Colorado Convention Center in Denver. As part of the conference, the IOUG will host the COLLABORATE 13-IOUG Forum with nearly 1,000 sessions providing user-driven content. The theme of this year's COLLABORATE 13-IOUG Forum is "Elevate - take control of your career and elevate your Oracle ecosystem knowledge and expertise," says IOUG president John Matelski.

Two big questions are on the minds of data professionals these days. How are increasing complexity and the inevitable onslaught of big data shaping the future of database administrators and data architects? How will our roles change? In the interest of studying the evolving landscape of data, the Independent Oracle User's Group (IOUG) took the pulse of the community. The Big Data Skills for Success study polled numerous individuals in the IOUG Oracle technology community, to identify just how the responsibilities of handling data are changing and what the future of these roles looks like.

When data professionals think about regulatory compliance we tend to consider only data in our production databases. After all, it is this data that runs our business and that must be protected. So we work to implement database auditing to know who did what to which data when; or we tackle database security and data protection initiatives to protect our data from prying eyes; or we focus on improving data quality to ensure the accuracy of our processes.

Two columns ago, I described how the TPC benchmarks are useful for getting a general idea of the performance characteristics of your preferred database vendor and hardware platform. And in last month's column, I described how the published TPC benchmarks can even help with pricing, especially when you don't have your own quantity discounts in place.

Databases are restricted by reliance on disk-based storage, a technology that has been in place for several decades. Even with the addition of memory caches and solid state drives, the model of relying on repeated access to information storage devices remains a hindrance in capitalizing on today's "big data," according to a new survey of 323 data managers and professionals who are part of the Independent Oracle Users Group (IOUG). The survey was underwritten by SAP Corp. and conducted by Unisphere Research, a division of Information Today, Inc.