Matt Aslett's Analyst Perspectives

I recently articulated some of the reasons why IT teams can fail to deliver on the business requirements for data and analytics projects. This is an age-old and multifaceted problem that is not easily solved. Organizations have a role to play in alleviating the issue by ensuring that their business processes and project planning support a collaborative approach in which business and IT professionals work together. Data and analytics product vendors can also help by delivering products that are...

I previously wrote about how document-database providers have added support for ACID transactions and the SQL query language, making their products increasingly suitable for use as replacements for applications that previously depended on relational databases. Adoption of non-relational NoSQL databases is by no means reliant on displacing incumbent relational databases, and initial adoption is often driven by differentiating capabilities, such as developer agility and application flexibility....

I have previously written about the functional evolution and emerging use cases for NoSQL databases, a category of non-relational databases that first emerged 15 or so years ago and are now well established as potential alternatives to relational databases. NoSQL is a term used to describe a variety of databases that fall into four primary functional categories: key-value stores, wide-column stores, document-oriented databases and graph databases. Each is worthy of further exploration, which is...

I previously wrote about the challenge facing distributed SQL database providers to avoid becoming pigeonholed as only being suitable for a niche set of requirements. Factors including performance, reliability, security and scalability provide a focal point for new vendors to differentiate from established providers and get a foot in the door with customer accounts. Expanding and retaining those accounts is not necessarily easy, however, especially as general-purpose data platform providers...

I previously discussed the trust and accuracy limitations of large language models, suggesting that data and analytics vendors provide guidance about potentially inaccurate results and the risks of creating a misplaced level of trust. In the months that have followed, we are seeing some clarity from these vendors about the approaches organizations can take to increase trust and accuracy when developing applications that incorporate generative AI, including fine-tuning and prompt engineering. It...

I am happy to share insights gleaned from our latest Buyers Guide, an assessment of how well vendors’ offerings meet buyers’ requirements. TheVentana Research 2023 Data Observability Buyers Guide is the distillation of a year of market and product research by Ventana Research. Drawing on our Benchmark Research, we apply a structured methodology built on evaluation categories that reflect the real-world criteria incorporated in a request for proposal to data vendors supporting the spectrum of...

The 2023 Ventana Research Buyers Guide for Data Observability research enables me to provide observations about how the market has advanced. 

I am happy to share insights gleaned from our latest Buyers Guide, an assessment of how well vendors’ offerings meet buyers’ requirements. The Ventana Research 2023 Data Orchestration Buyers Guide is the distillation of a year of market and product research by Ventana Research. Drawing on our Benchmark Research, we apply a structured methodology built on evaluation categories that reflect the real-world criteria incorporated in a request for proposal to data vendors supporting the spectrum of...

The 2023 Ventana Research Buyers Guide for Data Orchestration research enables me to provide observations about how the market has advanced. 

I am happy to share insights gleaned from our latest Buyers Guide, an assessment of how well vendors’ offerings meet buyers’ requirements. The Ventana Research 2023 Data Pipelines Buyers Guide is the distillation of a year of market and product research by Ventana Research. Drawing on our Benchmark Research, we apply a structured methodology built on evaluation categories that reflect the real-world criteria incorporated in a request for proposal to Data vendors supporting the spectrum of Data...