Big Data has taken the world by storm. Recent market dynamics in the commercial and public sectors have created a data economy that will have a deep, lasting impact. This data economy has burst upon the market landscape, offering lucrative opportunities for executives who understand the strategic power of data to move the needle and help them outperform. However, many organizations have either not yet recognized that power, or are not sure how to get started. This often results in organizations turning to traditional technologies to manage Big Data. Big Data comes in many forms, shapes, and sizes, and it’s imperative that organizations are able to not only store their data, but also unify it and leverage it for business gain.

1. Use MarkLogic to tackle your information challenges.
Big Data’s Next Step: Applications
Big Data has taken the world by storm. Recent market only 45 percent of organizations are moderately
dynamics in the commercial and public sectors have created or strongly committed to leveraging this resource,
a data economy that will have a deep, lasting impact. This creating a competitive advantage for those
data economy has burst upon the market landscape, offering companies that do.
lucrative opportunities for executives who understand
In addition, 35 percent of respondents say unstructured
the strategic power of data to move the needle and help
information has already or will surpass relational
them outperform. However, many organizations have either
data in the next 36 months. Add in those who think it
not yet recognized that power, or are not sure how to get
will happen in the next decade, and the number rises
started. This often results in organizations turning to
to 52 percent. A majority of survey respondents also
traditional technologies to manage Big Data. Big Data comes
acknowledge that data is growing out of control and
in many forms, shapes, and sizes, and it’s imperative that
is driving the Big Data explosion—a full 91 percent of
organizations are able to not only store their data, but also
respondents say unstructured information already lives
unify it and leverage it for business gain.
in their organizations, but many aren’t sure what to do
about it. As data evolves, the approach to managing it
A Look at Modern Data must evolve as well.
Today’s data landscape looks vastly different than it
The Evolution to Big Data Applications
did even a few years ago. With the evolution of mobile
devices and social networks, data is being created at an Market “staying power” and the value of an organization
ever-increasing rate. This is complex data that includes is now driven by the ability of executives to leverage the
tweets, videos, pictures, and status updates. Data that explosion of this information and manage the evolution
is useful for business decisions is increasingly coming to Big Data Applications. In order to adapt to the influx
from outside the organization. An important step in
of data, IT organizations have tried to extend the life
embracing Big Data is understanding how different
of their RDBMS and BI/data warehousing systems to
types of data add value and what tools are available for
managing this data. support Big Data. However, this approach is at its limit.
The IT effort required to extract, transform and load
A recent 2011 survey conducted by Unisphere Research,
(ETL) unstructured data, manage and integrate multiple
a division of Information Today, Inc., looked into the
data sources, predefine queries, and build Big Data
issues companies are having with unstructured data.
The findings are alarming, clearly showing that many Applications is time-intensive and unsustainable. The
organizations are not currently prepared to deal with problem is fundamental—traditional RDBMSs were
unstructured information, much less Big Data. simply built for another era. The 21st century requires
Among some of the key survey findings: a 21st century database, and attaining the strategic
• 86 percent of respondents admit that unstructured benefits of Big Data requires a fundamental shift to a
data is important to their organization, yet only new database approach.
11 percent have clear procedures and policies for This approach needs to be built to power today’s mission-
managing unstructured data in place.
critical Big Data Applications, with capabilities to:
• 80 percent of respondents know the amount of
unstructured data will rise in the next three years, • Unify data from all sources without forcing data
modeling, transformation, schema normalization, or
but only 24 percent of respondents believe their
data management, and integration
current infrastructure will be able to adequately
manage it. • Easily add, update, and expand information, change
• 40 percent of managers are unaware of the extent attributes, and continuously improve the data by
capturing record sets, and queries
unstructured data exists in their organization, and

2. • Perform iterative, ad hoc queries on the full database in In order to run efficiently, organizations must
real-time, eliminating the need for pre-defined queries free IT from ordinary constraints, and make their
continuous data management struggles a thing of
• Deliver real-time data with the highest level of
the past. Eliminating the need to extract, transform,
performance, eliminating the need to wait for ETL for
data refresh and load (ETL) by accepting data from any source
“as-is” and inherently indexing every detail so all
• Support mission-critical applications with the highest data is immediately available for any mission-critical
scalability, government-grade security, backup, and application or analysis is a key benefit of MarkLogic.
disaster recovery Application development cycles can be reduced from
These capabilities make it easy and cost-effective to months to just a few weeks.
operationalize Big Data. This means that organizations
This capability is transformative in nature, giving
can run core operations on Big Data Applications
that leverage reams of structured, semi-structured, organizations a “first-to-information” advantage. At its
and unstructured data and interactions emanating core, MarkLogic allows organizations to get an edge
at unparalleled rates from scores of transactional by running operations and applications on all data,
systems, as well as mobile devices, social networks, continuously updated in real-time. Limitless, ad hoc
email, tweets, video, and sensors. These capabilities queries give executives, line-of-business employees,
open up new possibilities to turn this ever-growing and data scientists an order-of-magnitude improvement
volume of data into a source of value, operational in their ability to make more informed decisions, spot
dexterity, regulatory compliance, first-to-market trends, and understand what’s happening in real-time.
advantage, new revenue streams, and innovative Now, fast-paced organizations can leverage Big Data to
business models. drive new levels of performance, innovation, and value.
There is no need to compromise by operating with only a
The challenges to leveraging all of an organization’s limited set of information.
information are clear, but the opportunity to create a
competitive advantage has never been clearer. MarkLogic continuously makes information more
valuable. Queries continuously enrich the data and
Organizations and Technology Leading the Way the unified database is open and ever-evolving. With
MarkLogic, organizations are finally able to break down
Organizations such as LexisNexis and the Department information silos, leverage data they could not access
of Transportation are already leveraging all of their before, and make Big Data available to core operations
data to build Big Data Applications which power new in real-time.
technology platforms and track and respond to vital
security issues. Although their needs are very different, MarkLogic is built to meet the Big Data requirements
each of these organizations and many others work necessary for today’s mission-critical applications, and
with MarkLogic to power their core operations on Big is a powerful, enterprise-ready solution with Google-
Data. In fact, MarkLogic is powering over 500 of the like scalability. It meets the toughest government-
world’s most critical Big Data Applications in sectors grade security requirements and is delivered with
such as military, intelligence, financial services, digital the backup, disaster recovery, archiving, and high
publishing, and healthcare. availability capabilities necessary to run and manage
mission-critical applications.
Organizations rely on MarkLogic to advance their
Big Data Applications because it offers the first
operational database technology specifically for
mission-critical Big Data Applications, and makes it For more information please visit our site at
easy for organizations to run their core operations on www.marklogic.com
Big Data by unifying structured, semi-structured, and
unstructured data into a single database. Organizations
can now finally run their operations on any data, at any
volume, in any structure—with a much broader set of
MarkLogic Corporation information, organizations can analyze all transactions
www.marklogic.com
and interactions and measure in much greater detail.
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