Here Is a Little Background
In the past we only had business data which was arranged in rows and columns such as name, address, city, etc. Business computers with business databases and Personal computers with spreadsheets etc. processed all the information efficiently. Today, smart devices generate data that does not look like rows and columns. For example, musical instruments create music which is stored in MIDI files, cameras create images, smart phones created text, voice messages etc. which are not rows and columns of data. So when these digital files started to appear, we used business databases to store them. In the beginning, it worked OK. But our devices have become so much more powerful that we quickly generate large amounts of data. Many times, we generate this data automatically without human intervention. As we have now computerized every industry such as medicine, music, printing, movies, drawing, etc., we are generating so much more digital data and files. Email has increased to the point where we rarely mail out letters through the post office. Likewise, digital books are available in PDF or formats such as ebook or mobi; we get them and read them digitally. Our newsletters and magazines that used to be printed are now being generated as digital contents or files, and they arrive electronically. We used to save them on magazine and book racks and shelves, but now that they are not arriving as printed matter - we need a way to store them. We just mentioned a few examples. We didn't mention the digital pictures that we create or all those digital pictures that we receive via texting, emailing, web sites etc.
About The Technology
Technology has advanced so rapidly and has given birth to the digital era. Computing power is everywhere. Computers have not only moved to our homes; they have occupied our pockets, and today they are also wearables and disposables. From wherever they are performing their functions, they are processing a lot of data. Collectively, these systems today make up what we call the "Internet of Things" or simply IOT. The internet will soon be communicating with billions of these smart devices located everywhere. One thing is for sure; these devices are creating data. And, lots of it! This is Data that has now reached what is called Zetaflood levels. All of us are a part of it; we have to deal with our own portions which are getting difficult and alarming. Fortunately, there are some solutions we want to tell you about.
If we take a look at the big picture, we can easily conclude that this is not just a corporate or company problem. This is an individual problem, and how we deal with it must consider the variety, volume and velocity of the information (the speed at which this is coming), where we are, what we are doing and whether we are working, at home, relaxing or entertaining.
Today, what we do not have is a way to see it, realize it, address it and deal with it in a satisfactory manner. Just as we have some desks that are cluttered with unorganized paper and stuff; we now have digital clutter. To see it all, we must look at all of our PC's, our tablets and our smart phones. We have pictures in all of them, stored everywhere, in no organized fashion. We have our emails, our pdfs, our word docs, our excel files, our videos etc. etc. The types of contents that we deal with are increasing every day. We will soon be dealing with cad files and 3dprint files and so on and on.
What Kind of Problems Does This Cause Us?
Let's look at a few. First of all, we have these stored all over our devices, sometimes duplicates, and yet we struggle to find them. Sometimes, we don't even know that we have them anymore. Secondly, we do not collect our valuables. Digital magazines are starting to arrive one at a time, and items are often attached to emails in our inbox. When the email system or the PC is changed, the files go with it. Very simply put; we are unaware of what we are getting, what we have, and what we do not have.
It's been stated - we can find our pictures in albums from the 60's but we cannot find our digital pictures from the last decade. Seriously - is Technology helping?
Imagine if we had a way of managing this information. We could find what we were looking for, be aware of what we had, and know what we were getting and not getting. Thanks to new technologies, we now have simple and economic solutions.
Let's look closer at this new technology and see how this product works, so we get the best benefit from it. The old business data was always stored in databases which were optimized for the queries that found the data. When Big Data came along, we developed new types of databases which could deal with the whole file, referred to as digital contents or just content. Today's Big Data is more than 80% unstructured content and roughly 20% structured business-like data. NoSQL Databases were developed recently to deal with digital contents. Processing this data in the wrong business database could cause unwanted problems with respect to efficiency, speed, performance, and more importantly cost, especially for individuals and consumers.
Speaking about cost, any new product must be affordable for the people needing it. Databases are typically complex and costly. Big Data Databases are no different. Most databases require resources like powerful, expensive computers. Scientel took this problem into consideration and created the Gensonix polymorphic NoSQL database which combines the functions of a business database and a content database into a single product. We further created efficient systems which can deal with complex data problems without requiring too much horsepower. What this means is that Gensonix is one of the smallest footprint databases available today which can handle many functions and data without needing massive computing power. This makes it possible for Scientel to be able to create solutions that run on the smallest of all computers. Combined with the hardware technologies available at low cost, Scientel has been able to engineer powerful products inside small form factor computers.