Database Trends and Applications introduces the inaugural “DBTA 100,” a list of the companies that matter most in data. The past several years have transformed enterprise information management, creating challenges and opportunities for companies seeking to extract value from a sea of data assets. In response to this, established IT vendors as well as legions of newer solution providers have rushed to create the tools to do just that.

Regulatory mandates that specify the way information is captured and protected and how long it must be retained have caused companies to amass data at levels thought unimaginable in the past. Compounding this trend is the data pouring from machines, the web, and social media.

The extent to which data is growing was underscored by a 2011 survey conducted by Unisphere Research and sponsored by Oracle among 611 members of the Independent Oracle Users Group. The survey found that for close to 1 out of 10 respondents, the total amount of online (disk-resident) data they manage—taking into account all clones, snapshots, replicas, and backups—topped a petabyte. The same study found that more than one-third of respondents’ companies are storing data in their systems for more than 7 years due to either their company’s own policies or external compliance mandates, and 12% say they just hold on to their data … indefinitely.

The phenomenon that has resulted from the ensuing variety, velocity, and volume of information is called “big data.” And while that term is overused, it is only because it is such a ubiquitous force.

Business leaders want to do more than simply store all that data for compliance purposes. They seek to derive value and insight from it for competitive advantage. As a result, rampant data growth and the need for solutions to handle it have provided an impetus for IT innovation.

Would there be Hadoop and MapReduce without the need to analyze data stores too vast and varied for a standard data warehouse? Would NoSQL databases (Key/Value, Graph, Document, and Column) have become a force without the need to organize and exploit unstructured data in myriad forms? Would cloud and software as a service have evolved without the pressure to scale elastically, deploy quickly, and provide anywhere, anytime access to information?

Yet, as new technologies have emerged, proven data management approaches have also held their ground. NoSQL and NewSQL technologies are supplementing, not replacing, relational database management systems. Data integration is becoming more important than ever along with business intelligence solutions that can handle both structured and unstructured data. Companies that have based their businesses on tried and true MultiValue technology (sometimes referred to as the fifth NoSQL database) continue to do so while also integrating their data with relational data stores. And what value would any of this information hold without solutions to cleanse and deduplicate it, and the ability to keep it secure from outside hackers and internal privileged users?

Against this swirling backdrop, the staff of DBTA set out to create a list of 100 companies that matter in data. DBTA decided to focus strictly on companies that provide a product or service related to data management. Some of the companies have been around longer than any of us can remember. They provide technologies and services that have been on the market for many years and do so exceptionally well. Others are new on the scene or have game-changing approaches that are not yet widely embraced.

Here, and on the following web pages is the DBTA list of 100 companies that matter most in data. We encourage you to learn more about why these vendors were selected by visiting their websites. In addition, DBTA View From the Top articles from sponsors provide special messages from executives themselves on what makes their companies unique.