DBTA E-EDITION
June 2025
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Trends and Applications
It's been said that AI is only as good as the data fueling it. And that's true—to an extent. Having good data is important, but it is also useless if it's inaccessible. This explains why building the Data Operating Fabric—an intelligent platform that oversees and controls real-time data ecosystems to help businesses run more smoothly and drive better ROI—has become a priority for organizations as AI adoption continues to accelerate and new solutions, such as AI agents, come online.
Columns - Database Elaborations
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.
Columns - DBA Corner
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.
Columns - Emerging Technologies
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.