Title: The Battle for Data

Abstract: It's more and more true: Data is a key business asset. Having the right data at the right time will mean commercial success or failure.

But, just owning lots of bytes is not enough. You have to be the company producing new data or enriching data. Companies such as Google and Facebook understand this, telephone companies do as well. They are all collecting massive amounts of "new" data. It's not difficult to see that in the near future it's going to be a battle for data. Who has the most and the best data? And who knows how to turn data into information by deploying advanced forms of analytics? But not every organization gets this yet. They have their IT systems, but they manage their data very carelessly. Equally important is the technology being deployed. Using yesterday's technology is not sufficient. The battle for data is also a battle for technology.

• Do organizations really see the value of their data?
• It's crucial that top management understands IT technology
• The importance of agile IT architectures
• Removing the wall between OLTP and BI/DW systems is a challenge for architects
• Is big data always big information?