Database Trends and Applications magazine looks for offerings that promise to help organizations derive greater benefit from their data, make decisions faster, and work smarter and more securely.

This year our list includes newer approaches leveraging artificial intelligence, machine learning, and automation as well as products in more established categories such as relational and NoSQL database management, MultiValue, performance management, analytics, and data governance.

Why do businesses remain ill-equipped for digital transformation and automation? This question was originally answered on Quora by John Dillon.

As DRAM approaches scaling limits, there is significant industry investment in alternatives. An approach called persistent memory (PM) is emerging that is likely to influence enterprises in important ways. This article describes PM, how applications will benefit and why customers should care.

The IT landscape continues to evolve. The diverse influences impacting the IT scene today include expanding streams of Internet of Things data, the interrelated forces of virtualization and cloud technologies, the need for real-time computing, the rise of data lakes, and the continuing demand for high-level data analytics. Along with those trends, there are also pressing business requirements for high availability and performance, intensifying demand for self-service data access, and a growing understanding of the need for data governance and data quality in light of strict regulatory requirements such as GDPR.

Intel and Micron’s 3D Xpoint non-volatile memory has proven a unique bridge between NAND and DRAM in the storage hierarchy. Today, Intel is bringing the persistent, low-latency characteristics of 3D Xpoint to DIMM slots with a product called Optane DC Persistent Memory. Intel says Optane DC Persistent Memory sticks will be available in capacities up to 512 GB per module, versus about 128 GB in today’s largest DIMMs using DDR4 SDRAM. With Optane DIMMs, Intel claims its servers will be able to employ up to 3 TB of non-volatile yet lighting-fast memory per socket for crunching the huge data sets businesses have gathered for analysis in today’s world.

Until now, the storage and memory hierarchy in the data center has been the familiar set of DRAM for the hot tier, flash and SSD for the warm tier, and hard drive and tape for the cold tier. Persistent memory, which is arriving at scale this year in the shape of Intel’s Optane Data Center SSDs, changes that hierarchy significantly.

Der eigentlich bereits für das vergangene Jahr geplante Start von DIMM-Modulen mit 3D-XPoint-Speicher, der bei Intel unter der Marke Optane läuft, wurde nun von Intel genauer ausgeführt und soll tatsächlich noch in diesem Jahr starten. Angekündigt hatte Intel dies bereits im vergangenen November, technische Daten bzw. eine Umschreibung in welchem Umfeld solche DIMMs eingesetzt werden sollen, beließ man aber noch offen. Als Start bezeichnet Intel die Samplingphase, die ab sofort startet, der echte Marktstart erfolgt erst 2019.

On Wednesday, Intel announced the availability of its Optane DC Persistent Memory, in sizes up to 512GB per RAM module, according to a press release. While these RAM modules are pin-compatible, (mostly) drop-in replacements for DDR4 DIMMs, the high capacity—and ability to retain data when powered down—are properties of 3D XPoint memory developed in a joint venture between Intel and Micron.

Today at its Memory Storage Event, Intel announced the release of its new Optance DC persistent memory. Instead of a tweak on an existing technology such as new interfaces or different NAND, this is a new class of memory. Intel makes the bold claim that this could reimagine the data center memory and storage hierarchy, a claim that could be proven true.