Author: Justin Hesser

Many people who are hot on the technology landscape have made the case that systems like mobile devices and the cloud are changing the way entire sectors of business operate on a fundamental level. This happens to businesses in all sectors.

A recent article from the Hartford Business Journal profiled Connecticut's legal sector, which has rebounded in recent years following the recession. Helping with the turnaround has been the influence of business technology. Specifically, this has included the use of mobile devices, encrypted networks and cloud storage.

According to Mark Dubois, a lawyer from New London and the impending Connecticut Bar Association president, the use of this technology has fundamentally changed how individuals define themselves as lawyers, how communication happens with clients and how legal services are delivered. This isn't doing the same task with different tool, but a refashioning of everything.

"Technology has been an important sentinel in his firm's march toward greater efficiency and security for client-lawyer communiques and documents," Thomas Marrion, managing partner in regional law firm Hinckley Allen's Hartford office, told the news source. "We think three to four years down the road, we'll see even more the benefits of investing more time and effort in that.''

The only problem is that there is no "one-size-fits-all" type of solution for all businesses. Instead, companies need to start looking at their specific situations and work on creating custom database software or examine the network to make sure that every system is deployed successfully and meets the specific needs of a company.

There are some members of the IT department that will tell you a good database can dramatically change a business. While some may think this is a bit of an exaggeration, nothing could be further from the truth – just ask Google and Autism Speaks.

According to an article from the Verge, these two groups have partnered to start creating the largest database of sequenced genomes in existence when it comes to people with autism and members of their families. It will include genomes from 10,000 people, 1,000 have already been mapped. The goal is that this "open source" database will be able to facilitate research into the causes of the autism spectrum and possible treatments and diagnosis.

"The [Autism Speaks Ten Thousand Genomes Program] holds the potential to radically transform our understanding of autism and redefine the future of medical care for those affected by the disorder," Rob Ring, Autism Speaks' chief science officer, said in a statement. "Working with Google is a game-changer in this story."

According to David Glazer, the director of Google Genomics' engineering, there are similar genetics databases in existence, but none of them are close to this scale with regard to information specifically about autism. He added that modern biology has become a data-limited science, but that is changing as the limits are being removed by modern computing.

It is clear that organizations will be able to do great things when information is brought together. With the use of custom database software, any organization will be able to take this idea to and start changing the world.

Over the last six months, there have been several high profile security breaches. These include Target, Michaels, Neiman Marcus and eBay. While the tactics used to breach the networks all vary slightly, it is believed that the use of constant database monitoring could have helped prevent this.

Recently, the Ponemon Institute released the results of a poll of 595 U.S. technology experts. Nearly two thirds of respondents ranked monitoring as the best form of database protection. Second on the list, being mentioned in 56 percent of responses, was advanced database activity monitoring. Database encryption rounded out the top three with 49 percent.

Using a database activity monitoring solution allows users to capture and record activity related to the use of Structured Query Language (SQL). It is used by administrators for several tasks and alerts can be set up that will trigger whenever an activity run with the data violates protocols. While there have been tools similar to this in the past, they are often expensive and unreliable, causing more harm than good. In recent years this has changed and the tools used to keep a database safe are more mature and will not break the bank.

These new tools can be used to locate active databases that the company may not be aware are being used and they are better at catching rogue software that could have been installed by a hacker to gather data and store it before sending off to a remote server where it is used for nefarious purposes.

"Continuous monitoring, looking for unusual or anomalous type of behavior, becomes very important," Larry Ponemon, chairman of the Ponemon Institute, said. "The more you monitor, the more things you can see and the more things you can stop."

According to a recent article from CSO, there are some that are questioning the conclusions that were reached.

Kevin Johnson, chief executive of Secure Ideas, said that database monitoring will not detect SQL attacks. The reason for this is that by the time a monitoring program sees it, it will look just like another query from any other application. This kind of solution is reactionary, but if you do not know that a problem is there, how will you be able to prevent it?

This is why the best practice in this situation is to have more security.

"I believe in a layered approach that perhaps should include a database firewall to mitigate the risk of SQL injection, combined with continuous monitoring of the database along with continuous monitoring of normalized network traffic flows," Paul Henry, a senior instructor at the SANS Institute, 

This not only helps fight SQL attacks but also many other tools of the cyber criminal trade. This is needed because the study found that 60 percent of respondents believed SQL injection was only a component of an attack they suffered.

Businesses in every sector are building databases at an increasing rate. With more systems going digital, this is becoming easier than ever before. It also makes it more important that custom database software is secure and constantly checked to ensure that the tools used to keep the information safe are up-to-date.

While many organizations are looking for new ways to gather relevant company data, they need to make sure they have a productive way to analyze it. Failure to do this causes companies to not be as effective as they could be.

Recently, SAS Institute and BMI-TechKnowledge, released the results of a poll of 350 companies. The main takeaway is that smaller businesses need to improve their complex business models and analytics.

North-West University professor Machiel Kruger told the news source that with the increase in information flow, the inability of local organizations to make use of analytics will have an adverse impact on productivity, competitiveness and ultimately economic development and job creation.

He added that business intelligence deals with data cleaning to prepare reporting tools for managers, and business analytics uses data inputted into models to make meaningful predictive decisions.

"A proper analytics strategy drills down to various pockets of the organization by identifying problems that need attending to, either through cost minimization or increasing turnover by taking out suboptimal processes to drive profitability in the organization," Edcon business intelligence manager Brent Henegan told the news source.

The poll also found that 87 percent of companies are still using spreadsheets as their main analytical tools. This is leading to a lack of information sharing which hampers departments as they are not able to integrate and share full data.

With the help of a custom database software solution, any organization can find a better way to gather and analyze its data to make the decision making process easier.

The data warehouse is something that many organizations are looking to take advantage of. With the growing amount of digital data that is being created, businesses need to harness this infomration if they want to be relevant.

Customers are gaining insights with big data from multiple sources and analysts need to draw conclusions from that information as fast as it is coming through the door. But this is easier said than done.

A recent article from TechRepublic features an in depth interview with BitYota CEO Dev Patel. According to him, for companies to better understand their business, they need to analyze the interactivity with customers at a granular level. The problem is that traditional systems will not allow that at an aggregated level because companies are going to lose some features in the data that you need to get better insights.

"And you need to be able to get better insights from data from multiple sources, and your traditional systems will not allow you to take data from multiple sources to get your insights," Patel said. "Traditional systems don't let you obtain detailed insights on raw data, or very granular data, or get insights from data from multiple sources, where the velocity of the data could be very different from each source. That is something they don't do very well."

Patel goes on to talk about three major trends that are impacting the business database marketplace. These include:

Data speeds/variety – Organizations find themselves dealing with data coming at different speeds as the solution becomes more popular. Because of the digital age, data is being created with every click of the mouse and from every device that is connected to the internet. On top of that, it is being created in real-time.

All of this new data, is also creating a need to combine the new streams with the older, static data sources. This, in and of itself, can become quite the challenge.

Direct access to data – One of the problems with traditional analytic solutions, is that data needs to travel through multiple layers from the time it is collected until it is able to be analyzed. Engineers need to transform or translate the data to make it consumable by an analyst.

The latest trend involves cutting out the middle man and speed up a process that has been slowed down by what is not considered unnecessary formatting and language changes.

Velocity of analytics – Finding the temporal value of data is now becoming more critical. This means that organizations need to figure out a way to not only collect the information that is being gathers at a breakneck speed, but also look for ways analyze just as quickly. Some businesses are looking to acquire hourly reports which would require a company to analyze the data as soon as it comes into the system.

Many organizations are currently looking for ways to optimize their incoming data. One of the best ways to do this is by partnering with an solution provider that can help create the custom database that is designed to work with their a companies specific business needs.

There is a shift happening in the business software landscape. While software like Excel remain a must have and power solutions for all companies, new options are making it harder for organizations to hold back when it comes upgrading.

A recent article from the Cleveland Plain Dealer examined the use of Excel spreadsheets in an age where many companies are starting to invest in services like Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) and Customer Relationship Management (CRM). Excel still remains an amazing tool and has a comfortable level with many executives, managers and employees.

However, that doesn't mean that Excel can be sophisticated and take a tremendous amount of time to review, analyze and act upon the details that is contained within it. Because companies are adopting mobile and web-based application to run operations, which is not a strong suite for organizations that rely on Excel.

The article features an interview with Dan Weiss, the CEO of a Cleveland-based custom database developer. He spoke about some of the ways that his business helps organizations transition from traditional systems like Excel and embrace more sophisticated solutions. His company uses FileMaker Pro as the backbone of its database solutions and is able to make Excel data more manageable in a functional-web-based application.

Reliable software developing companies are helping organizations take their solutions to the next level. No two companies are the same and quality solution provider can ensure that any business is able to create and deploy a customized solution. 

The use of database solutions is growing across the business landscape. With more systems going digital, the amount of information that can be gathered and analyzed is increasing exponentially. With all this raw data now available, companies need to find a way to harness it and that means proper databasing and analytic solutions have become more important.

A recent article from Database Trends and Applications makes the case that in the current digital landscape, data has become king. The marketplace is heating up and the number of solution providers is increasing in size and public awareness, resulting in the IT community quickly realizing the opportunity specific business systems like NoSQL, Hadoop and FileMaker.

According to a Wikibon forecast cited in the piece, this database marketplace topped $540 million in 2012 and in the next five years that will increase to nearly $3.5 billion. That is a compound annual growth rate of 45 percent.

"Database solutions today must be able to support extremely diverse application use cases that cross all major verticals for core business and mission applications," the article reads. "Data is king, and the demand to find new ways for storing, processing, analyzing, and mining data continues to provide green fields of opportunity for traditional relational database vendors."

For many organizations, custom database development can be the best way to take on the need for a database solution. While any organization can buy a system off the shelf, to truly optimize it, companies should tailor the solution to what they actually need.

There are many instances where creating a database can be have wide sweeping benefits for the industry it is in. Health care, for instance, is filled with different ways that a database can make operations and improve patient care.

According to an article from the Associated Press, New York is in the process of quietly building one of the nation's largest computer databases of medical records. Once it is completed, patients and doctors alike will have access to the complete medical histories in one location and could save millions in the long run by avoiding redundant tests and unneeded admissions.

Dr. Rainu Kaushal, chairwoman of Weill Cornell Medical College's Department of Healthcare Policy and Research, said there is a tremendous value to society in avoiding unnecessary health care. Once enrolled in the program, a patient who visits the emergency room, for example, will be less likely to repeat radiological scans. This happens by creating a centralized location where doctors can look up evaluations they have had at other hospitals, including labs, EKGs and radiologic testing.

All of this is part of a larger movement across the health care industry to move away from paper records and start going digital. In New York, this system has been growing slowly since 2007, when it was first introduced. It currently has 71 percent of New York's hospitals and more than 20 percent of its 67,000 doctors are linked to the information exchange.

Creating a new database solution can be complicated. With the help of a FileMaker developer, any business can effectively create its own system.

When it comes to business software solutions, many companies are looking for new ways to stay effective. As more systems are reliant on technology, software becomes increasingly important as the platform to manage these solutions. However, knowing software is needed and creating a custom solution that meets all of the challenges of the organization are two different things.

According to a recent article from Modern Health Care, the state of Connecticut is planning to start selling the technology solution it created to handle its acclaimed insurance exchange website "Access Health CT." This is needed because many states are mulling the complicated task of fixing sites that are crashing.

Connecticut Governor Dannel Malloy said that it is time for many individuals to start admitting to mistakes they made and move past them for workable solutions. One way that organizations can answer this is through buying the expertise of other organizations. In this case, Connecticut's website technology solution.

According to the article, Maryland is already partnered with the state and Deloitte to rebuild its online marketplace. The project will cost up to $50 million and is more complicated than just buying a system off the shelf.

"(It's) not a seamless purchase, but these platforms are already built, proven and viable," said Dan Schuyler, the senior director for exchange technology at consultancy Leavitt Partners.

He added that Connecticut's success is based on the fact that the state as a whole is a strong organization with good leadership from the top down.

Creating a custom database software solution is not easy and a quality development firm can help any business design and deploy a custom system.

The latest upgrade to FileMaker has helped cement the solution as a powerful database tool for the enterprise marketplace. Over the last few months, we have touched on several of the features that make the system as a whole a popular software tool.

A recent article from ProgrammableWeb put the system through the ringer for full review. Article author Stuart Iler, along with his team, created desktop, Web and mobile layouts with FileMaker Pro without any programming. While a database novice may face a learning curve, the intuitive interface and extensive documentation will make it much easier for anyone that is handling this process.

“One of the key selling points for FileMaker 13 is that it lets users design and create a single database back end, with an easily configured and deployed solution wherever you want to consume it. In the process of conducting this review, the advantages of that approach were apparent,” the article reads. “In all, we recommend FileMaker 13 as a powerful tool for building customizable database solutions without the need for a lot of technical know-how.”

It is unsurprising that the piece gives a positive review to FileMaker 13. It is a powerful database tool that can help any organization find a more efficient way of doing business. However, it can be difficult for companies that are unfamiliar with this kind of software solution to effectively deploy it. This is where a FileMaker developer can become a valuable resource for creating and deploying a new database.