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2018 has proven to be one of enterprise tech’s most tumultuous years. Major outages like that of YouTube, coupled with the massive security and privacy debates which infused conversations in board rooms all over the world, showed technology professionals just how sticky things can get when database management goes awry.
Looking ahead to 2019, businesses should use what they’ve learned from the past year to understand and take action towards improvement, starting with their central command – the database. With data being produced, analyzed and stored at exponential rates (thanks to the growing technological ecosystem), the database is perhaps the most crucial element in overcoming – and preventing – similar outages and data breaches in the coming year.
There are several things likely to occur in 2019. Here’s what database managers and developers can expect to see happen in the coming months.
The Rise In Unstructured Data Calls For More Database Lockdowns
Perhaps you’ve heard of those predictions about 50 billion connected devices arriving by 2020? Well, 2019 is on our doorstep. The complexity and amount of data bombarding databases is expanding at an exponential rate thanks to IoT entering the enterprise, and unfortunately, a cookie cutter schema database isn’t going to work.
New types of data is coming from devices and tools that weren’t even on our radar, which could moonlight information transit points that will demand super flexibility in data modeling. This data also presents new types of cybersecurity threats as it’s easy to find and encrypt, making it vulnerable to ransomware. With major ransomware attacks like Exactis, database professionals need to find new safeguards for their company’s most valuable asset – it’s data.
As a solution, databases will offer additional securities by refusing to emit data to the pubic without it being a fully secured transaction. Seems obvious, right? Unfortunately, many security issues stem from a developer releasing the locks around their application during development and then forgetting to reissue them when once the application is ready for production. Organizations must put additional emphasis on ensuring these locks are in place and secure ahead of the application going public.
NoSQL and Microservices Become the Top Choice for Modern Application Developers
Microservices is the new incumbent software architecture. It lives on flexibility and is characterized by being distributed and highly available. The mindset of a microservices architecture goes hand in hand with the dynamic thinking of the nonrelational data approach.
In 2018, developers were coding in a microservices environment where most preferred to work in NoSQL. As unstructured data continues to grow, and more applications are launched from cloud platforms to support optimal use of resources to the application layer, the growing attraction of nonrelational thinking to cutting-edge developer will continue.
Performance and Functionality Rise to the Top of Every CIOs list
IT teams are always looking for ways to optimize development, but in 2019, other priorities will take center stage: performance and functionality. As more applications go to the cloud, developers will become more aware of how an application that makes too many queries or general calls to the server will add to cloud computing costs. Issues like memory utilization have come to the forefront in 2018 because now they directly impact the bottom line.
Going forward, code will have to be reworked with an emphasis on minimizing cloud costs. To achieve this, developers must maximize what they are getting from every trip to the server while minimizing the number of trips in total. Additionally, new code will be “debugged” to make sure applications are making only the most efficient queries.
CIOs will need to establish best practices for minimizing cloud costs while safeguarding performance and functionality. As more lines of code go to the cloud, and the CFO sees the rising costs, teams will get wiser in this regard.
Technology reusability is top of mind for those tasked with enterprise digitization. For digital capabilities that impact the entire organization – such as e-signature – companies are prioritizing a shared services approach over siloed implementations.
Companies Will Continue to Prioritize Compliant Data
Across the globe, companies like Macy’s and Best Buy have felt the pressure to ensure data is compliant and secure. Compliance standards such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) have made it crucial for these companies to better protect data and monitor who is using it and where it is going.
To help with this, databases must maintain accurate logs that track who is accessing data, when they’re accessing, how they’re accessing it and why. Not following the correct policies and processes when it comes to database compliance can lead to lawsuits and fines.
