Every business knows the importance of data. In today’s market, data is critical for understanding the needs of your target audience, the performance of your systems and the competition landscape. Consequently, data management has become an important cornerstone in the management of businesses as more entities outsource software development.
Over the last decade, there has been a significant transformation in the database management landscape. New trends continue to emerge in database management and it is proving necessary for businesses to keep up if they want to remain relevant. This post highlights some of the top trends in database management today.
- Focus on improving database security
As mentioned, data is very valuable today. Consequently, there has been an increased threat of cyberattacks with hackers developing more innovative and sophisticated strategies to gain access to company data. This has necessitated the increased focus and efforts towards addressing security challenges.
Today, technologies such as Blockchain are being incorporated to minimize the threat of cyberattacks. Further, hardware and software configurations are becoming more sophisticated to mitigate the ability of hackers to comprise the integrity of database systems.
- Could database management
Cloud computing is not a new thing. It has been around for several decades. However, we have seen a trend where most databases are now being hosted in the cloud. From this trend, experts in the field predict that the future of database management is in the cloud. It is expected that by 2022, roughly 75% of all databases would have migrated to the cloud or would be deployed from the cloud.
The increased preference of cloud over local database warehouses is attributable to the advanced functions cloud hosting provides, scalability and ease of integration associated with cloud technologies. Further, cloud hosting provides companies with more flexibility as it expands their scope of working location with remote access while minimizing the risk of data loss.
- Automated database management
With automation, companies are now capable of eliminating the inefficiencies in their systems and processes. The world is fast-paced, and staying ahead of the competitions requires businesses to have faster and more accurate processes. The top advantages of automation in database management include:
- Consistency of output hence increased productivity and throughput
- Attainment of more stable processes
- Saves employee time to engage in other activities. It also allows you to execute parallel processes on the same database.
- Reduces errors in processes and transactions that are associated with manual database management.
- Predictive analysis
The emergence and dominance of technologies such as Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning have brought new possibilities for enhanced database performance. Predictive analysis allows businesses to process, analyze and draw insights from their data much faster to make informed business decisions.
For instance, with machine learning, businesses can learn to provide personalized responses to their clients by analyzing the data for every unique user. They can then draw insights on their preferences to inform them on how best they can respond to them.
Predictive analysis is still a relatively new technology and is still under development. However, the results achieved so far suggest that leveraging the power and possibilities presented by predictive analysis and machine learning will help businesses or brands draw better insights and utilize their data more effectively.
- Outsourcing database management
Outsourcing is a common trend in software development. However, most people only think it is limited to web app development. Over recent years, outsourcing database management has become increasingly common. More companies are moving overseas for their database management solutions.
The increasing preference for outsourcing in software development is attributable to the low associated costs and assured quality of services. These reasons are the same for outsourcing database management. Outsourcing the services of a company professional database management assures you quality services and minimal cost. Additionally, with outsourcing, you get minimum downtime, advanced and assured security features, and data backup and recovery.
- SQL – NoSQL bridging
There is a departure from using a single database strategy. Today, database management is adopting a database structure that combines the old SQL with the new-age NoSQL practices. For a long time, SQL has been the automatic choice for data management. However, NoSQL has emerged to be a suitable and necessary option, especially with the digitization of database management. Simply put, NoSQL can process large volumes, velocity and variety of data better.
Bridging SQL and NoSQL allows you to enjoy the capabilities of both technologies.
- Regulatory compliance
With the increased importance of data protection, governments around the world have moved in to establish various regulatory frameworks to govern the management of data. Good examples of such regulatory policies are the California Consumer Privacy Act enacted in January 2020 and the General Data Protection Regulation enforced in the European Union.
Businesses today are required to establish sufficient data protection frameworks to safeguard the data they collect from users. Further, they are obligated to inform the users of the type of personal data collected and how they intend to use the data. Various regulatory frameworks in place regarding cybersecurity that stipulate the security frameworks are also in place. Businesses have to comply with these laws and policies to protect their users from potential hackers.
Conclusion
Several technologies, such as artificial intelligence and machine learning, have emerged recently and brought about significant transformation in the database management landscape. They are expected to cause further disruption going forward, especially given the increased realization of the potential they have.
That said, the disruption does not mean businesses should rush to keep up. While you should strive to keep up with the current developments, the adoption of new tools and processes should facilitate improved operations and effective data management in your business. It is critical to have a proper database management strategy to govern how you handle and integrate the new trends in your operations.
