How organizations handle disruptive data sources

In the 2018 Data Connectivity Survey by Progress, more than 1,400 business and IT professionals in various roles across industries and geographies shared their insights on the latest trends within the rapidly changing enterprise data market.

The findings revealed five data-related areas of primary importance for organizations as they migrate to the cloud: data integration, real-time hybrid connectivity, data security, standards-based technology and open analytics.

Significant findings from the survey include:

• Data integration has become the #1 challenge, with nearly 50% of respondents pinpointing ever-increasing disparate data sources as a major pain point.
• 44% of respondents are worried about integrating cloud data with on-premises data, making real-time hybrid connectivity critical.
• Increased data security vulnerabilities, penalties and regulations are creating new challenges and opportunities for data integration. More than 65% of survey respondents said they must comply with one or more standards.
• Standards-based access is growing in popularity as the number of data sources continues to grow at a rapid pace. Over 50% of survey respondents are currently using ODBC and/or REST.
• REST APIs have become the standard framework for application integration. An impressive 65% of respondents are opting for REST/web APIs for databases.
• The concept of open analytics is on the rise as organizations seek to query cloud applications with their favorite analytics tool or programming language. On average, organizations are using 2.5 different BI reporting tools, underscoring the need for universal BI connectors to support a variety of needs.
• Relational databases are still critical for many enterprises, as SQL Server (55%), MySQL (40%) and Oracle (37%) are still in active use for most of the businesses surveyed.

“Enterprises are looking to release the power of their data for competitive advantage, while upholding the highest standards for data security,” said John Ainsworth, SVP, Core Products, Progress. “Disparate data sources, migration to the cloud, self-service BI demands, and increasing government regulations create challenges for every organization.”