READERS' CHOICE AWARDS 2020

Abstract

Representative of the IT market itself, the product categories in this year's competition are diverse, with well-established technologies such as relational database management, MultiValue, and BI but feature also newer ones, including AI and cognitive computing, graph databases, and the Internet of Things. Congratulations to all, and thanks to everyone who submitted nominations and voted! BEST AI AND COGNITIVE SOLUTION TensorFlow FINALISTS * Azure Machine Learning * Google AI BEST BI SOLUTION Tableau FINALISTS * Microsoft Power BI * Quest Toad Data Point BEST BIG DATA PLATFORM Cloudera Data Cloud Platform FINALISTS * Microsoft Azure * Amazon EMR BEST CDC SOLUTION Qlik Replicate FINALISTS * IBM InfoSphere CDC * Quest SharePlex BEST CLOUD DATABASE Amazon RDS FINALISTS * Microsoft Azure * Couchbase Cloud BEST CLOUD SOLUTION Microsoft Azure FINALISTS * Amazon Web Services * Quest Software Spotlight Cloud BEST DATA ANALYTICS SOLUTION GoodData Analytics Platform FINALISTS * Databricks * Qlik Sense BEST DATA GOVERNANCE SOLUTION erwin Data Intelligence FINALISTS * IBM InfoSphere Information Governance Catalog * Cloudera Shared Data Experience BEST DATA INTEGRATION SOLUTION Devart dotConnect ADO.NET providers FINALISTS * Quest SharePlex * SnapLogic BEST DATA LAKE TOOL Snowflake FINALISTS * Okera Active Data Access Platform * Zaloni BEST DATA MODELING SOLUTION erwin Data Modeler FINALISTS * dbForge Studio for MySQL * Quest Toad Data Modeler BEST DATA QUALITY SOLUTION Quest Toad Data Point Professional FINALISTS * SAS * Trifacta Wrangler BEST DATA REPLICATION SOLUTION Quest SharePlex FINALISTS * Qlik Replicate * Striim Software Platform BEST DATA SECURITY SOLUTION IBM Guardium FINALISTS * Oracle Audit Vault and Database Firewall * IDERA SQL Compliance Manager BEST DATA STORAGE SOLUTION Amazon Simple Storage FINALISTS * Microsoft Azure Storage * Quest QoreStor BEST DATA VIRTUALIZATION SOLUTION Denodo Platform FINALISTS * Quest Foglight Evolve * IBM InfoSphere Federation Server BEST DATA VISUALIZATION SOLUTION Qlik Sense FINALISTS * Tableau * AppDynamics Experience Journey Map BEST DATABASE BACKUP SOLUTION Percona XtraBackup FINALISTS * Devart dbForge for SQL Server * Commvault Complete Backup & Recovery BEST DATABASE DEVELOPMENT SOLUTION Navicat Premium FINALISTS * Quest Toad Development Suite for Oracle * Devart dbForge SQL Complete BEST DATABASE OVERALL Couchbase FINALISTS * Microsoft SQL Server * Oracle Database BEST DATABASE PERFORMANCE SOLUTION SolarWinds Performance Analyzer FINALISTS * Quest Foglight for Database * Navicat Monitor BEST DBA SOLUTION Quest Toad DBA Suite FINALISTS * SentryONE SQL Sentry * Navicat Premium BEST GRAPH DATABASE Neo4j FINALISTS * Amazon Neptune * TigerGraph BEST IN-MEMORY SOLUTION Couchbase Server FINALISTS * SAP HANA * Oracle Database with In-Memory Option BEST IOT SOLUTION Microsoft Azure IoT FINALISTS * Couchbase Mobile * AWS IoT Platform BEST MULTIVALUE DATABASE Rocket MultiValue (D3/U2/UniVerse/UniData) FINALISTS * Revelation OpenInsight * Pick Cloud DBaaS BEST NOSQL DATABASE Redis FINALISTS * Couchbase * DataStax BEST RELATIONAL DATABASE Oracle Database FINALISTS * Microsoft SQL Server * MariaDB BEST STREAMING SOLUTION Apache Flink FINALISTS * Quest SharePlex * Microsoft StreamInsight Couchbase Businesses today work in real-time, not batches. To come close to equaling what this database does, organizations would need: a document database, front-end cache, SQL database, distributed transaction manager, full-text search engine, an MPP database in the cloud, a Mobile/Embedded database, and mobile back-end services at the edge. The award-winning Denodo Platform propels data virtualization to the forefront with innovations that modernize today's data management: * Hybrid cloud/multi-cloud integration-Whether it is initial migration to the cloud or further expansion to multiple clouds, Denodo enables organizations to accelerate data integration across different locations while lowering operational costs and leveraging PaaS-style infrastructure automation and autoscaling support. * Machine learning/data science automation-With Denodo's machine learning-aided data catalog, data scientists can discover and prepare data for building complex data models and aid advanced analytics. * API/microservices enhancements-New support for execution of GraphQL on top of logical data models promotes no-code approach to use of REST APIs and accelerates adoption of advanced microservices architectures. * Hyper performance-Denodo Platform maximizes query delegation and boosts performance to sub-second responses with AI-powered recommendations, and caching and smart query acceleration for frequent, expensive queries.

In the future, the year 2020 may be seen as the critical turning point for digital transformation. The COVID-19 crisis has prompted individuals and organizations to reevaluate how they function, increasing their reliance on online transactions, new strategies for collaboration and management, and innovative work-from-home approaches. The result has been a dramatic spike in data, which is the lifeblood of business today.

More than 59 zettabytes of data will be created, captured, copied, and consumed in the world this year, according to a May 2020 update to IDC's Global DataSphere forecast. The COVID-19 pandemic is adding fuel to the already brisk pace of data growth, IDC contends, due to the increase in the number of work-fromhome employees. It is also changing the mix of data being created to include more video communication and more activity in downloaded and streamed video. In addition to these trends in data growth and usage, there continues to be a marked increase in the deployment of sensors to gather and add context to data.

The possibilities for gaining business benefits with this rich treasure trove of data are endless. Enterprises around the globe are focused on becoming data-driven in order to provide better service to their customers, make processes more efficient, arrive at decisions faster, and avoid risk.

However, advances in technology to derive more value from the tsunami of data flowing from on-premise facilities, the cloud, the edge, and devices may also be accompanied by new hurdles.

Organizations not only need to ingest and store all this data, but also deliver real-time data and insights while addressing requirements for data quality, governance, and security. The new hybrid reality of on-premise and cloud-based systems enables more flexibility, but also presents management difficulties. And, AI and automation can help make IT and data professionals' roles easier, but the hitch is that the data fed into these systems must be accurate and trustworthy in order to achieve the desired results.

Whether well-known, with established positions built over the course of years, or new to the data management space, the mix of solutions being used to fuel business success is constantly changing. What's the best way to know which ones are worth exploring? In the IT industry, there are certainly many resources for learning about products and services. But sometimes, hearing about a product or service from an associate, a colleague-or a fellow DBTA reader-is also useful.

To help companies make those possibilities a reality, each year, Database Trends and Applications presents the Readers' Choice Awards, providing an opportunity to recognize companies whose products are selected by experts-you, the readers.

Representative of the IT market itself, the product categories in this year's competition are diverse, with well-established technologies such as relational database management, MultiValue, and BI but feature also newer ones, including AI and cognitive computing, graph databases, and the Internet of Things.

Here, we present the top three vote-getters in each category. Congratulations to all, and thanks to everyone who submitted nominations and voted!

BEST AI AND COGNITIVE SOLUTION

TensorFlow

FINALISTS

* Azure Machine Learning

* Google AI

BEST BI SOLUTION

Tableau

FINALISTS

* Microsoft Power BI

* Quest Toad Data Point

BEST BIG DATA PLATFORM

Cloudera Data Cloud Platform

FINALISTS

* Microsoft Azure

* Amazon EMR

BEST CDC SOLUTION

Qlik Replicate

FINALISTS

* IBM InfoSphere CDC

* Quest SharePlex

BEST CLOUD DATABASE

Amazon RDS

FINALISTS

* Microsoft Azure

* Couchbase Cloud

BEST CLOUD SOLUTION

Microsoft Azure

FINALISTS

* Amazon Web Services

* Quest Software Spotlight Cloud

BEST DATA ANALYTICS SOLUTION

GoodData Analytics Platform

FINALISTS

* Databricks

* Qlik Sense

BEST DATA GOVERNANCE SOLUTION

erwin Data Intelligence

FINALISTS

* IBM InfoSphere Information Governance Catalog

* Cloudera Shared Data Experience

BEST DATA INTEGRATION SOLUTION

Devart dotConnect ADO.NET providers

FINALISTS

* Quest SharePlex

* SnapLogic

BEST DATA LAKE TOOL

Snowflake

FINALISTS

* Okera Active Data Access Platform

* Zaloni

BEST DATA MODELING SOLUTION

erwin Data Modeler

FINALISTS

* dbForge Studio for MySQL

* Quest Toad Data Modeler

BEST DATA QUALITY SOLUTION

Quest Toad Data Point Professional

FINALISTS

* SAS

* Trifacta Wrangler

BEST DATA REPLICATION SOLUTION

Quest SharePlex

FINALISTS

* Qlik Replicate

* Striim Software Platform

BEST DATA SECURITY SOLUTION

IBM Guardium

FINALISTS

* Oracle Audit Vault and Database Firewall

* IDERA SQL Compliance Manager

BEST DATA STORAGE SOLUTION

Amazon Simple Storage

FINALISTS

* Microsoft Azure Storage

* Quest QoreStor

BEST DATA VIRTUALIZATION SOLUTION

Denodo Platform

FINALISTS

* Quest Foglight Evolve

* IBM InfoSphere Federation Server

BEST DATA VISUALIZATION SOLUTION

Qlik Sense

FINALISTS

* Tableau

* AppDynamics Experience Journey Map

BEST DATABASE BACKUP SOLUTION

Percona XtraBackup

FINALISTS

* Devart dbForge for SQL Server

* Commvault Complete Backup & Recovery

BEST DATABASE DEVELOPMENT SOLUTION

Navicat Premium

FINALISTS

* Quest Toad Development Suite for Oracle

* Devart dbForge SQL Complete

BEST DATABASE OVERALL

Couchbase

FINALISTS

* Microsoft SQL Server

* Oracle Database

BEST DATABASE PERFORMANCE SOLUTION

SolarWinds Performance Analyzer

FINALISTS

* Quest Foglight for Database

* Navicat Monitor

BEST DBA SOLUTION

Quest Toad DBA Suite

FINALISTS

* SentryONE SQL Sentry

* Navicat Premium

BEST GRAPH DATABASE

Neo4j

FINALISTS

* Amazon Neptune

* TigerGraph

BEST IN-MEMORY SOLUTION

Couchbase Server

FINALISTS

* SAP HANA

* Oracle Database with In-Memory Option

BEST IOT SOLUTION

Microsoft Azure IoT

FINALISTS

* Couchbase Mobile

* AWS IoT Platform

BEST MULTIVALUE DATABASE

Rocket MultiValue (D3/U2/UniVerse/UniData)

FINALISTS

* Revelation OpenInsight

* Pick Cloud DBaaS

BEST NOSQL DATABASE

Redis

FINALISTS

* Couchbase

* DataStax

BEST RELATIONAL DATABASE

Oracle Database

FINALISTS

* Microsoft SQL Server

* MariaDB

BEST STREAMING SOLUTION

Apache Flink

FINALISTS

* Quest SharePlex

* Microsoft StreamInsight

Couchbase

Businesses today work in real-time, not batches. They are in a constant state of change. Applications are being deployed hourly, everywhere on the cloud and beyond. While there are more breakpoints than ever, reliability and near-infinite scale to the peaks and valleys of business are just a core assumption of everyday life. Meanwhile, the brittle hodge-podge of infrastructure that enterprises have built their applications on are too complicated with too many components.

Couchbase is the reimagination of a database given the current advancements in Network, Compute, and Storage. The foundational architectural shift enables Couchbase to deliver blazing speed and scale at one end, and effortlessly perform complex analytics to deliver insights on the other. The memory and network-centric architecture combined with multi-dimensional scaling capabilities and built-in replication protocol allows Couchbase to be globally distributed and extendable to the edge. To come close to equaling what this database does, organizations would need: a document database, front-end cache, SQL database, distributed transaction manager, full-text search engine, an MPP database in the cloud, a Mobile/Embedded database, and mobile back-end services at the edge.

Couchbase is used as a primary data platform across multiple business-critical use cases by over 30% of Fortune 100 companies. Enterprises depend on Couchbase to run everything from a simple key-value application like user profiles to complex enterprise applications like ERP. With key innovations like Couchbase Cloud, Couchbase Mobile, and Couchbase Autonomous Operator, we are delivering the solutions to help our customers solve their hardest problems.

Couchbase

www.couchbase.com

Denodo

With disruptions to the business due to the COVID-19 pandemic, companies are seeking to quickly adapt their business to the new norm-reduced revenue, budget, and staff-to stay a step ahead. Data virtualization enables companies to quickly pivot to lower-operational-cost technologies such as the cloud, while allowing their business users to continue their revenueproducing operations without interruption.

The award-winning Denodo Platform propels data virtualization to the forefront with innovations that modernize today's data management:

* Hybrid cloud/multi-cloud integration-Whether it is initial migration to the cloud or further expansion to multiple clouds, Denodo enables organizations to accelerate data integration across different locations while lowering operational costs and leveraging PaaS-style infrastructure automation and autoscaling support.

* Machine learning/data science automation-With Denodo's machine learning-aided data catalog, data scientists can discover and prepare data for building complex data models and aid advanced analytics.

* API/microservices enhancements-New support for execution of GraphQL on top of logical data models promotes no-code approach to use of REST APIs and accelerates adoption of advanced microservices architectures.

* Hyper performance-Denodo Platform maximizes query delegation and boosts performance to sub-second responses with AI-powered recommendations, and caching and smart query acceleration for frequent, expensive queries.

Through data virtualization, the Denodo Platform offers enterprise-grade data integration and data management solution that rivals legacy integration techniques. With its new 8.0 version, the Denodo Platform advances agile data integration and governed data management, extending Denodos reach into new data science use cases and advanced hybrid and multi-cloud architectures.

Denodo

www.denodo.com

Devart

WINNERS' CIRCLE, DEVART DATA CONNECTIVITY SOLUTIONS

Data Connectivity Solutions that Accelerate growth

The exploding data landscape where enterprises explore tons of different data sources dictates the terms. An effective strategic decision-making requires fast access to real-time data.

With more than 20 years of development experience, Devart produces data connectivity solutions used with thousands of data-driven applications. Companies of any size manage data more efficiently and make better business decisions with their help.

The world's largest organizations trust these tools.

dotConnect

dotConnect includes enhanced ORM-enabled ADO. NET data providers ensuring high-performance access to databases and clouds.

dotConnect goes beyond ordinary providers and offers:

* the best Entity Framework and Entity Framework Core support,

* visual ORM designer,

* advanced SQL support for clouds

* and more.

Also, dotConnect is always the first to support all new platforms and development technologies. dotConnect providers allow you to develop faster and make fewer mistakes. It ensures the highest performance and reduces security risks.

A wide choice of world-class data connectors

Besides dotConnect, Devart offers a wide choice of world-class data connectivity solutions for various data connection technologies and frameworks. It applies to Delphi data access components, SSIS components, ODBC drivers, Excel add-ins, and more.

Devart data connectors allow you to enrich your analytics, database management, application development, or connect your office software to the necessary data. Any SaaS, data warehouse, SQL, or NoSQL sources are compatible.

Can't find a connectivity solution fitting the needs of your company? Make use of our vast experience. You'll find the right solution for your connectivity needs.

Devart

https://www.devart.com/database-connectivity.html

https://www.devart.com/dotconnect/

erwin, Inc.

Data Modeling Underpins Data Governance

You can't manage or govern what you can't see, much less use it to make smart decisions.

A data-driven approach has never been more valuable to addressing the complex yet foundational questions enterprises must answer. Organizations that have their data management, data governance and data intelligence houses in order are much better positioned to respond to challenges and thrive moving forward.

erwin Data Modeler (erwin DM) has been the most trusted name in data modeling for more than 30 years. While data modeling enables collaboration within an organization because it delivers a visual source of truth for everyone to follow, its most compelling use case lies in its connection to data governance.

erwin Data Intelligence (erwin DI) provides data catalog, data literacy and automation capabilities so all enterprise stakeholders can discover, understand, govern and socialize data assets. It automatically harvests, transforms and feeds metadata from the widest range of data sources, operational processes, business applications and data models into a central data catalog. Then it is accessible and understandable within a business user portal via role-based, contextual views.

This data intelligence helps produce the desired results to improve organizational performance. Today, data isn't just for developers and data professionals. It's everyone's business if the goal is discovering meaningful insights that drive value.

Thanks to DBTA's readers for naming erwin DM and erwin DI the Best Data Modeling and Best Data Governance Solutions. Visit our website to request a free trial or demo.

erwin, Inc.

www.erwin.com

Neo4j

Neo4j is the leader in graph database technology. Neo4j is a native graph database, meaning it is purpose-built írom the ground up for connected data. More precisely, it exposes a property graph data model via its popular open query language Cypher, and is optimized down to the memory and storage level for representing any data as a graph. Two key advantages of this technology are that the physical representation of the data more or less matches the way you would draw it on a whiteboard, making it easy to communicate, evolve, and understand. Secondly, it's especially great at spidering through complex networks of data easily and efficiently, particularly as data sizes grow. Data is connected as it's loaded, which turns connected queries into pointer-chasing operations, which are incredibly fast & efficient.

As the world's most widely adopted graph database, Neo4j powers artificial intelligence, fraud detection, real-time recommendations, and master data management, and much more. The Neo4j community uses graph technology to solve some of society's most pressing problems: climate change, curing cancer, accelerating humanity's journey to Mars, advancing gender equality, improving government transparency, and pushing the boundaries of human knowledge.

The beauty of Neo4j's technology is that it is horizontal. Today, thousands of deployments across a broad range of industries use Neo4j to build new and innovative applications that leverage connected data at scale. Neo4j supports a number of free and commercial options, with tools for development, graph visualization tools, graph data science, as well as a new Neo4j Aura database-as-a-service.

Neo4j

neo4j.com

Qlik

At Qlik, our vision is to help create a data-literate world, where everyone can use data and analytics to improve decision-making and solve their most challenging problems. We know that means helping organizations tackle the complex challenges of transforming data into real business value.

Data is the foundation of the new economy, but alone can't drive change. Data integration and analytics must transform data into actionable insights that can reinvent everything from customer experiences and business processes to revenue streams and competitive strategy.

Every organization is inundated with complex and varied data types. Most are struggling to maximize data's value since it's flowing through unintegrated and leaky data pipelines, often due to a lack of a data catalog and change data capture capabilities. In addition, investments in AI and analytics are being undercut without an agile, automated and agnostic data pipeline that continually transforms data from any cloud, system or source into enterprise-ready information that drives action and outcomes.

Qlik's data integration and data analytics platforms, together with our data literacy as a service offering, deliver the industry's only end-to-end approach to Active Intelligence. Unlike traditional BI, Active Intelligence realizes the potential in data pipelines by bringing together data at rest with data in motion for continuous intelligence derived from real-time, up-to-date information, and is specifically designed to take or trigger immediate actions. Active Intelligence eliminates data leaks by closing the gaps from relevant to actionable data, actionable data to actionable insights, and from investment to value.

Qlik

www.qlik.com

With support for over 10 major database platforms, SolarWinds® Database Performance Analyzer (DPA) empowers database administrators (DBAs) to pinpoint the root cause of performance problems typically in seconds or minutes. Every query has different response times, which will vary during high-volume business hours vs. low-volume times. Anomaly detection powered by machine learning separates DPA from legacy performance monitoring products by allowing DBAs to identify abnormal query performance on Monday at 9 a.m. vs. 2 a.m. In addition to query and index tuning, DPA's wait-based analytics zeros in on why a query is slow, such as from VM delays of resource consumption for CPU or storage. With down-to-the-second monitoring, DPA transforms tuning from reactive to proactive by identifying the best optimization opportunities based on actual workload.

DPA has database and monitoring and optimization support for:

* Oracle

* Oracle RAC

* Oracle Exadata

* Oracle EBS

* Microsoft SQL Server

* Azure SQL Database

* Azure SQL Managed Instance

* Aurora

* IBM DB2

* MariaDB

* MySQL

* Percona

* SAP ASE

* PostgreSQL

* EDB Postgres

* Azure Database for PostgreSQL

* Amazon RDS for PostgreSQL

* Amazon Aurora for PostgreSQL

SolarWinds

www.solarwinds.com