Gartner issued a press release yesterday stating their belief that data warehousing is on the verge of major changes beginning in 2011. Two key changes highlighted by the release are increased demand for new types of information formats and applications, and increased demand for real-time data. Data consumers in the most forward-thinking companies are straining to go beyond mere reporting and analysis of business numbers to get at the context or meaning of business activity.
New formats and applications
In order to find this meaning, it will be necessary to go beyond traditional number-oriented data warehouses and incorporate text and media to a much greater extent than ever before. Companies that had toyed with text and media as data sources will now embrace them as integral to their data warehouses. This in turn will challenge business intelligence architects to ditch traditional ideas of reporting and analysis in order to present the new data in a way that helps the decision maker grasp the meaning he or she seeks. One thing I can easily envision is the increased use of tag cloud interfaces similar to what you now see in many blogs.
More data, faster
The other item, which we've discussed elsewhere on this site, is real-time data and business intelligence. This is what is driving the rapidly increasing interest in columnar databases, such as the one that powers Vertica Systems, whose acquisition by HP was announced and discussed here last week.
Behind the search for meaning
Larger companies will be investing heavily in the new technologies in an attempt to match the nimbleness and responsiveness of smaller businesses without adding large numbers of skilled analysts, who will be too expensive or not available. Growing businesses will need to be aware of the need to transition into these kinds of capabilities as they scale up through time and to plan their investments in new technology and data accordingly.
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