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New Big Data Sourcebook Examines the Unfolding Big Data Era


To shed light on the enterprise and technology issues IT professionals will be facing in 2017 as business or organizational leadership seeks strategies to leverage the "big data" phenomenon, the fourth annual edition of the Big Data Sourcebook is now available for download.

While the expanding array of technologies and data sources presents new opportunities, the irony is that the wealth of options is creating its own complexity. 

According to “The 2016 Enterprise Data Management Survey,” produced by Unisphere Research, despite the enduring centrality of relational database management systems, Apache Hadoop is gaining significant traction in the enterprise. About 40% of respondents reported that they now have a Hadoop installation, and of those, about two-thirds said that their relational databases are included in the Hadoop installation. However, more than 80% of respondents also noted that their Hadoop implementation has not replaced their enterprise data warehouse. Meanwhile, Apache Spark is also a promising new technology in the pioneering and early adopter stage.

Another Unisphere Research report found that organizations are seeking help from data management departments to spearhead their efforts to benefit from big data analytics and identify what the most important data sources may be. Yet, managing the integration of networks, data systems, and applications to deliver reliable information is a greater hurdle than ever before (“Consolidate, Virtualize, Automate, and Standardize: 2016 IOUG IT Resources Survey,” sponsored by Dell EMC).

As the era of high volume, variety, and velocity data unfolds, the intertwined objectives and requirements for data are apparent across all disciplines, creating what can at times appear to be an almost paradoxical situation of competing concerns. While next-gen technologies such as Hadoop and NoSQL are gaining ground­—relational database technology has maintained dominance for decades as the IT workhorse. Organizations want to make information more widely accessible to users for analytics—­but need to enforce privacy of personal data as well as protect information from hackers. Cloud is advancing in the enterprise—but on-premises data solutions are still in wide use and will be for some time. We want information from an increasingly diverse array of sources—but we also want it to be vetted with data quality rules enforced.

The many issues related to today’s data management challenges are examined in the 2016 Big Data Sourcebook from different vantage points.

With all the options available across so many areas, the trick is to identify the right choices for your organization now. The fourth annual Big Data Sourcebook is here to help. Read on for articles penned by our subject matter experts who identify the key issues to consider now—and offer a glimpse of what’s ahead.

We will continue to explore the broad spectrum of big data issues in person as well at the annual Data Summit, which returns to the Hilton New York Midtown in May 16-17, 2017, with pre-conference workshops on May 15.


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