Stay ahead of the game by future-proofing data management with Krishna Thirtha

Staying ahead of the curve in the fast-paced world of technology is imperative for businesses to thrive. Krishna Thirtha, Regional Business Leader, Couchbase presented thought-provoking viewpoints on the evolving landscape of data management and its profound impact on businesses today at the second edition of TechSparks Mumbai.

The discussion kicked off by highlighting Couchbase's groundbreaking achievement of offering a vector search optimised for on-site deployment across cloud, mobile, and IoT devices. This innovation underscores the pressing need for organisations to future-proof their data management strategies. Indeed, as Thirtha concurred, the data management market is undergoing a seismic shift, with estimates projecting exponential growth from $10 billion in 2023 to a staggering $50 billion by 2029.

Navigating the data landscape

However, amid this growth lies a landscape fraught with complexity. Thirtha elucidated the three dimensions of data—volume, velocity, and variety—emphasising the proliferation of unstructured data types like text, video, and social media content. He clarified that although the volume has been quite organic, a lot of data, mostly transactional, might be arranged into rows and columns when considering diversity. Unstructured data, including text and video, is becoming more prevalent in games due to the rise of social media. On the one hand, businesses have a fantastic potential to use this data, but it has also resulted in a great deal of complexity.

In response to these challenges, organisations often fall prey to common pitfalls, Thirtha stressed, “We are seeing that one could be rushing for the best-of-breed, it’s very important to see you put the business case first, prioritise it, and then work backwards to see how some of these features are relevant.” Thirtha highlights the importance of prioritising use cases and adopting a platform-centric approach, as exemplified by Couchbase's multi-model database platform offering.

AI and scalability

Key trends shaping the data management landscape were also scrutinised, with a particular focus on artificial intelligence (AI) and scalability. Everyone is talking about AI these days, according to Thirtha, but he's more interested in the scale. There are four or three factors that they are examining when it comes to driving a scale.

Illustrating the tangible impact of Couchbase's solutions, Thirtha shared compelling case studies, including LinkedIn's utilisation of Couchbase for seamless profile data management and Amadeus's reliance on Couchbase for high-volume transaction processing with minimal latency.

Moreover, Thirtha shed light on Couchbase's vector search capabilities, contextualising it within the broader platform story aimed at mitigating complexity sprawl. “The way the variety of data for every aspect of when you look at the database platform, whether it could be caching, whether it could be searched, people have gone about embracing leading solutions for each of these and that has led to a lot of complexity sprawl,” he said.

“The same thing is happening when it comes to AI. Everyone is in a rush to go. The vendors today are focusing on AI, while it’s important, you’re adding to your complexity again. So with Couchbase, what we are saying is that our platform covers all of these rolled into one single platform and from a commercial standpoint we don’t charge customers for different features. So the choice is up to the customer. We just charge for the platform,” added Thirtha.

As the discussion drew to a close, reflections on failures underscored the importance of a solid foundational approach, especially for startups embarking on their data management journey.

Looking ahead, Thirtha expressed excitement about the future of data management, emphasising its pivotal role as a force multiplier for businesses in the data-led economy. Indeed, as technology continues to evolve, the ability to harness data effectively will be paramount in driving innovation and gaining a competitive edge.