DBTA Readers' Choice Award Winners (2026)

The influence of generative AI (GenAI) and decision intelligence continues to drive data-driven processes. While data quality and security remain essential, everyday components, organizations should also embrace AI/ machine language-driven automation and self-service analytics, while paying equal attention to the human element, thereby fostering a strong data culture, robust governance, and enhanced data literacy. With more data being created than ever before, making the right choices among the countless options for data management and analytics solutions is a top priority for many organizations. To help companies progress along their data-driven journeys, each year, DBTA presents the Readers' Choice Awards, offering the opportunity to recognize companies whose products have been selected by the experts—our readers! Read More

AI Spurs a Revival in Data Mesh and Data Fabric

Data mesh and data fabric caught the attention of data leaders in the early 2020s as a compelling way to retain and deliver information across highly disparate enterprises. Then AI came into the picture in a big way, overshadowing the time and attention devoted to mesh and fabric. Lately, because data-hungry AI systems demand a seamless flow of information, there has been a resurgence of interest in the flexibility that mesh and fabric provide. To meet this need, mesh and fabric are being layered together, rather than being categorized as differing approaches to data decentralization. Read More

The Hidden Tax on Every IoT Project—And Why Business Leaders Should Care

A few months ago, I was called in to discuss an IoT business case with the leadership of a prospect that had been waiting—patiently, they told me, but impatiently, I could tell—for their home build connected asset program to deliver on its promise. The use cases were well-defined. The ROI model looked compelling on paper. And yet, somehow, the data still wasn't flowing the way it needed to. Their engineers were buried. Read More

Signs It May Be Time to Reassess Your IT Infrastructure Strategy

Many organizations assumed their infrastructure strategy was settled. It had been implemented, optimized, and built into long-term plans. Recent changes in technology and vendor consolidation are forcing a second look. Cloud outages and licensing changes have exposed how much dependency exists on a small number of platforms. As a result, organizations are re-evaluating whether those decisions still hold up under current conditions. Read More

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Database Elaborations

Todd Schraml

Language is Always Hard Words such as "taxonomy" and "ontology" are often thrown around by data architects as if these terms were interchangeable. Generically, the ideas of taxonomy and ontology are similar, but not synonymous.

DBA Corner

Craig S. Mullins

Flexible Provisioning: The Missing Link in Test Data Management Database professionals have long understood that applications live or die by the quality of the data used to test them. Yet test data management (TDM) has historically been handled as a secondary concern. It is usually approached manually, in an inconsistent way, and frequently rushed. In an era of agile development, DevOps, and continuous delivery, this approach is no longer viable. At the center of modern TDM is a capability that DBAs can no longer afford to ignore: flexible provisioning.

SQL Server Drill Down

Kevin Kline

The Dangers in Replacing the Human Workforce With AI Autonomous, everyday workflows; streamlined inter-team collaboration; and time given back to humans for business-focused initiatives are just a few agentic AI benefits becoming clearer each day. Unfortunately, these advantages have tempted some to give agentic AI more "agency" than it deserves, leading to the ultimate replacement of human employees.

Emerging Technologies

Resumes, Data Parsing, and How Candidates Get Noticed in Database-Driven Hiring I am on assignment at Gent & Associates' executive search department looking at the hidden role of data parsing in modern recruiting. For decades, the resume was a simple storytelling document—a 1-page narrative of who you were, what you had done, and why you were worth hiring. Today, that world is gone.

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)?