Here is my list of predictions for the NoSQL “industry” for 2013 in no particular or alphabetical order … But rather inspired by the soundtrack of my college days that incidentally coincides with the rise of the last “great” data management paradigm – SQL in the 1980s.
- Welcome to the Jungle (errr… Corporate Data Center): In 2013, NoSQL platforms will begin to make the transition to wide spread implementation in the corporate data center. While there are many instances of NoSQL platforms that exist in corporate data centers, 2013 will be the year that the management facilities and standardization of operation within platforms will mature to the point where data center “professionals” will embrace these new technologies.
- She Blinded Me with (Data) Science(-tists): NoSQL has been the realm of specific application developers and other “analysts” using programming interfaces (APIs). In 2013, NoSQL will find new users and expanded audiences by streamlining and standardizing on some existing access methodologies. While I am not saying that NoSQL will magically become “NoSQL with SQL” (multi-structured datasets will make that difficult), 2013 will see NoSQL become more popular because you will not need to be a hardcore programmer to access the datasets.
- It's the End of the (structured data) World as We Know It: The deaths of the mainframe, PC and COBOL have long been predicted. Some people have even had funerals for these technologies and paradigms. I am not going to go so far as to say that 2013 is the death of structured data stores. However, I will say that in 2013 we will see the basis of NoSQL storage, for example HDFS, begin to find its way into structured data platforms in a convergence of structured and multi-structured platforms.
- Burning Down the (Data Ware)House: Just like the above predictions, this isn’t about the death or replacement of the data warehouse with NoSQL technologies and platforms. It will instead be related to the augmentation of the mission of analytical data management (often embodied by the data warehouse) with the processing power and storage flexibility of NoSQL platforms. This will of course cause a massive issue for champions of the ivory tower that has become the data warehouse …
- Fight for Your (Data’s) Right to Party (and/or be Processed): This will be a hard and fast 2013 prediction – Data Governance will need to be re-defined with the rise of NoSQL. No longer will it be acceptable to apply a data schema and data quality attributes before allowing data into data management environments. When SQL platforms prevailed, disk space was expensive and processing was not “parallelized”, you could make pronouncements like “this data isn’t worthy of being included in our environment.” However in 2013, competitive advantage will be dependent on “all the data” available and not just the data “blessed” by a data steward. Yes, 2013 will be the year that data stewards accept multi-structured data and data management platforms, or set their organizations on the path to “follower” status in the market.
Those are my predictions for NoSQL in 2013.
What say the readers?
Are NoSQL platforms ready to mature? Are they ready to challenge the structured data warehouse? Or are NoSQL platforms still 2-3 years away from making a true impact?
Post your comments below or contact me directly via Twitter at @JohnLMyers44 using the hashtag #noodlingNoSQL
(Author’s note: Despite my college years, I don’t remember all the song titles of the 1980s. Song title “inspiration” provided by VH1.)
Lorin
Great points, and ultimately to create a flexible data platform.
Your point on data governance is spot on and I'd even extend it to change the capabilities we think about the govern our data (MDM, data quality, metadata management, etc) and leverage them as nimble, creating contextual services rather than creating business rule and definition repositories. With the unstructurization of data, not only do you have to consider creating a physical structured world, but one that is in context of use and value.
Michele