Forbes warns business to prepare for exabytes
People are used to kilobytes, megabytes, gigabytes, terabytes, and even petabytes, but according to Forbes, business people will soon have to start thinking in exabytes or one million billion bytes, as global information predicted to increase at 30% a year.
Meanwhile, terabyte scales of information are the standard for information servers dealing with large databases in corporations and governments.
The Forbes report says that while intelligent and sophisticated use of information may be the top priority for a company planning to optimise its supply chain, being competitive requires organisation of huge terabyte volumes of information spread across many databases.
According to Forbes, companies need systems that scale up as their data volumes multiply. At the same time, they need to analyse and interpret this data with a constant view toward increasing profit margins and efficiency.
Although the challenge appears to be daunting, Forbes says the technology to accomplish this is already exists and is improving on a daily basis.
High demand for data warehousing tools
A demand for faster data warehouses with a greater number of users has helped drive the growth of the data warehousing software market last year, according to a recent report by the international data corporation (IDC).
TechTarget says the report shows the market experienced an 11.8% growth last year. IDC reports that companies are moving to larger, faster data warehouses and at the same time giving access to more internal and external users.
This is consistent with the trend that businesses are getting beyond the power user in the company and giving access to a larger number of role-players.
The growing importance of business intelligence has resulted in the need for more sophisticated data warehousing strategies, which is also driving larger data warehouse investments from high-end companies.
The lower end of the market is also reported to be heating up, with IDC saying it appears that companies of all sizes are seeking BI, analysis and reporting tools, all of which require accessible, usable data.
Adding value to SQL Server 2005
ProClarity has announced the latest release of ProClarity Analytics 6, version 6.1, which was developed in conjunction with Microsoft`s SQL Server 2005.
ProClarity`s products complement and enhance the Microsoft BI platform, Microsoft says, enabling organisations to harness the complex BI features available in SQL Server 2005.
CRM2day quotes ProClarity CEO Bob Lokken as saying that as business intelligence becomes increasingly integrated into every business process, ProClarity and Microsoft together will make sure more people can benefit from the technology by providing a comprehensive solution that is affordable and accessible for the entire organisation.
Share
