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CHAPTER 2

Evolving Business Information Access Needs

2.1 CHANGING TIMES

Figure 2.1: The 1946 ENIAC, arguably the first general-purpose electronic computer, weighed in at 30 tons and consumed 63 sq. meters of floor space. To celebrate ENIAC’s 50th birthday, a University of Pennsylvania team integrated the whole of ENIAC on a 7x5 sq. mm chip. (U.S. Army Photo, courtesy Harold Breaux.)

Before we examine search and database technologies in more detail (paying particular attention to recent evolutions giving rise to Search Based Applications), it’s important to first understand the changes in the business information landscape which are driving these evolutions.

Globalization, the Internet, new data capture technologies (e.g., barcode scanners, RFID), GPS, Cloud services, mobile computing, 3D and virtualization...a whole host of evolutions over the past two decades have resulted in a veritable explosion in the volume of data businesses must manage, and near-runaway complexity in enterprise information ecosystems. Data silos are mushrooming at an impossible pace, and the number and types of users and devices interacting with organization’s information systems are proliferating.

While opinions may vary as to specific recommendations for addressing these challenges, it’s clear that, at a minimum, organizations need:

• Better ways to manage large data volumes (improved performance, scalability and agility)

• More data integration (physical or virtual)

• Easier (yet secure) access for more types of users and devices

2.2 THE NEED FOR HIGH PERFORMANCE AND SCALABILITY