FOREWORD
I remember the days when folks would ask me why I work on database software—a relatively boring, commodity product area. In today’s era of computing, where greater business value is delivered through Big Data and analytics, that question has been well answered.
The term Big Data was first used in discussions about new technologies that enable the analysis of large volumes of unstructured data. Today, organizations increasingly look at Big Data as all data, and all paradigms for extracting value from it. All of the data that they own and all of the public data that they can access are largely untapped resources that hold the key to better service, increased operational efficiency, reduced cost, and reduced business risk.
The explosive growth of data is the result of billions of people using the Internet and mobile devices for commerce, entertainment, and social interactions, as well as the internet of things that constantly share machine-generated data. Along with the task of analyzing all of this data to extract its business value, we are challenged with capturing and managing this data in ways that remain uncomplicated, reliable, and affordable.
So once again, data system innovations have moved front and center in the pursuit of business innovation. And data professionals are emerging from behind the cloud of misperception that they are simply expensive “administrators” of the status quo. They are being increasingly recognized for the critical role that they play in translating technology innovation into business success.
At this pivotal time for our clients, I am thrilled to have the honor of leading the IBM team that delivered breakthrough innovations in both BLU Acceleration and an industry-unique set of capabilities in the latest release of DB2. Enhanced pureScale clustering technology for always-available transactions, new BLU Acceleration for speed-of-thought analytics, and NoSQL-style agility (a new Mongo-style JSON document store to go along with the work already done for graph stores and XML in previous releases) are just some of the things that make DB2 an ideal choice for this era of Big Data and analytics.
If you are reading this book, you likely play an important role in tapping the growing global resource of data. I commend your efforts to remain at the forefront of delivering value to your organization. This book is an excellent way to accelerate your journey.
I would like to thank Paul, Sam, Matt, George, and Aamer for this book. This is an outstanding group with an unwavering dedication to the success of our clients and all data professionals who use our products. Behind this group is a large ecosystem of IBMers who are equally passionate about delivering the innovation and high quality that help our clients to succeed.
Thank you, and enjoy the book.
Bob Picciano,
General Manager, IBM Information Management
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