Two primary streaks of innovation drive the need for more flexible, scalable technology at the start of the 2020s. First, digital and mobile business models continue to push organizations to expand their use of data far beyond traditional, structured, and centralized data management. The promise of big data platforms to easily allow for global data collection and analysis has never been realized. Second, modernization and innovation cycles that used to recur every five to seven years have been condensed. Most organizations trying to stay ahead of digital transformation are not ready for the speed and agility necessary to maintain a competitive advantage in a digital world.
In summarizing the teachings of Charles Darwin, Louisiana State University business professor Leon C. Megginson said the following at a convention of the Southwestern Social Science Association:
“It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is the most adaptable to change.”
Among the answers to this shift in the need for both speed and global mobility is the introduction of distributed cloud databases originally developed by Facebook to support their explosion in global growth. Since the open-source availability of Apache Cassandra™ in 2008, the market and the database offerings have matured. With enterprise-grade standards now built into new distributed database technology, the next generation of applications has the potential to surpass their predecessors with context-aware analytics embedded in cloud and mobile applications.
Companies looking to expand their use of open-source technology for digital and mobile business models should be careful to look for solutions that support the mission-critical nature of their modern applications. Along with enterprise-grade reliability and scalability, this next generation of modern applications relies heavily on real-time data acquisition and near-real time analysis of data. In addition, modern application platforms must support the embedding of analytics in customer-facing business processes.
EMA sees three shifts in the data management market that align with current trends for distributed cloud database technology:
- The convergence of cloud, streaming data, mobility, and intelligent edge devices creates the perfect storm for an explosion of modern applications running on distributed cloud databases. EMA expects to see continued, exponential growth in this area.
- Open-source distribution providers continue to deliver more stable and reliable software, freeing users from the patchwork that was initially part of every open-source offering and enabling them to focus on application development to support their core business. EMA expects the open-source market to accelerate maturity in the next three years.
- Open-source vendors continue to add enterprise capabilities that speed implementation, ensure reliability, expand use cases, and maintain rapid innovation cycles. EMA expects continued consolidation in the open-source market, where there are currently too many products and too much overlap of product capabilities.
DataStax recently made two announcements that align with these market trends and customer requirements. The two announcements signal the availability of reliable solutions for every distributed cloud use case, from a single mobile app running on open-source Apache Cassandra to modern digital enterprises running on enterprise-strength DataStax Enterprise (DSE).
For data-driven companies that want to create and maintain an early-to-market, competitive advantage, EMA’s impact brief on the DataStax announcements is now available free of charge. EMA Impact Brief: Datastax Ready for Next-Generation Cloud and Mobile Application Delivery.
