The Future of Data is Now

This is the first in a series of three blogs discussing David Gorbet’s “Shape Da Future” keynote address at MarkLogic World 2015.

The data word has changed. Data itself is now a commodity, but the technology used to create experiences with it is not. New database technology can now drive tailored, real-time experiences that would’ve been considered magical, or even impossible, just a few years ago. This technology can provide an almost limitless range of experiences.

The Work Experience

Imagine John, a trade compliance officer in London responsible for making sure that his staff of traders remains compliant with all relevant regulations. When he receives s mobile alert about an anomalous occurrence, John uses technology to determine the suspicious from the coincidental, makes an assessment, and then acts on it. Until very recently, John would’ve spent weeks sifting through spreadsheets, trade records, social media traffic, and instant message transcripts. The system John just used to do this work in a few minutes put these multiple forms of data into a single repository and made it all usable as part of a whole.

John was able to apply filters to keywords, make queries that associated those words with specific activities, and use semantic analysis to determine intent. Within minutes, he identified a pattern of suspicious behavior and launched a formal investigation.

The Personal Experience

Now, consider this same technology on a larger scale. Later that same day, John dines with his colleague Sarah, an over-the-counter derivatives trader. When a debate about football ensues, both consult the BBC Sports website and build support for the respective arguments. They are unaware that they are using the same technology John deployed at work hours earlier.

After lunch, Sarah helps a client quickly hedge his currency risk in response to the Greek debt crisis. When derivatives data was fragmented and siloed, it was not possible to craft such a solution in a few minutes. New technology allows Sarah to build a complex derivative model, one that will benefit her client and pass muster with regulators.

The Global Experiences

Two thousand miles away, a New York attorney named Karen sifts through thousands of emails in response to a discovery request. Fortunately, she uses Catalyst Insight—a system that continuously learns and retrains itself to provide increasingly relevant and more precise search results. Karen completes her work that afternoon and while packing up to go home, she glances down at the picture of her brother Ted on the desk.

Ted is an Army sergeant deployed in the Middle East. Part of an elite Special Forces unit, Ted reports to Lieutenant Paul Jackson. Paul advises his commanders about enemy activity by leveraging intelligence assets that were previously not accessible from a single system. This technology combines signals, reports from human assets, satellite images, and geospatial intelligence into a single view that maps relationships between objects. Paul can follow threads, correlate data, generate new mission-critical insights, and alert his superiors with accurate information about potential threats.

From investigating fraud to reading the Wall Street Journal, from e-discovery to watching TV on your tablet, these and many more experiences people around the world have every day are powered by MarkLogic.

New Experiences on the Horizon

But this is only the beginning. Over the next few years, tens of billions of new devices will be connected together, forming an Internet of Things. These devices will throw off data that can drive entirely new experiences. The technologies used by John, Paul, Karen, Ted and Sarah are real. MarkLogic powers these precise, individualized experiences—shaping the future of data in the process. And this is just the beginning. Soon, billions of devices will become part of this growing ecosystem and use data to enable interactions we cannot yet fully conceive.

The next installment in this series will further explore how MarkLogic is creating the next generation of data-driven experiences.