In an increasingly globalized world, businesses are exposed to risks more than ever before. With shrinking profit margins and increased competition, organizations need to be on their toes all the time to survive. That's where the importance of data comes in. The jury might still be out on whether data is the new oil. But the growing market of data analytics outsourcing tells you that more and more companies are investing in data analytic solutions to gain a competitive edge.

Today we’re announcing a public preview for the BigQuery native JSON data type, a capability which brings support for storing and analyzing semi-structured data in BigQuery. With this new JSON storage type and advanced JSON features like JSON dot notation support, adaptable data type changes, and new JSON functions, semi-structured data in BigQuery is now intuitive to use and query in its native format.

With the amount of data being created yearly reaching in the dozens of zettabytes and growing rapidly from year to year, companies have had to find creative solutions to manage big data. That is why loading terabytes of data in minutes or seconds for processing may be absolutely necessary for some businesses. This is the kind of speed and functionality that BigQuery gives. So, what is BigQuery? The Google Cloud suite offers a wide variety of services for every industry.

The start of a new year is a great time for reflection, and, when I look at the progress organizations are making on their data journey, I’m feeling quite positive as we welcome 2022.

While COVID-19 continues to cause devastating disruption to the global economy more than two years into the pandemic, it is also continuing to force remarkable innovation across different industries. Companies have found new ways to sell, service and operate during the crisis. For me, there is one common theme for these innovative companies, including Qlik, and it is “Jobs to be Done.”

Since I’m now migrating NodeGraph’s processes to Qlik, I thought it may be a good time to talk about migrating data during a merger or acquisition. There are many aspects to consider. Here are some of my thoughts on why companies merge or migrate data landscapes, common M&A migration pitfalls and how to avoid them, the time and cost involved migrating data during a merger or acquisition, and other topics.

Data is everywhere. As the sheer volume and number of data sources continue to explode, so do new opportunities for modern businesses to create and act on insights. That is if they are equipped with the right analytics technology. Historically, many businesses have settled for “good enough” analytics tools, putting up with lackluster bundles from full-stack vendors in an attempt to minimize cost or risk.

Since the release of Cloudera Data Engineering (CDE) more than a year ago, our number one goal was operationalizing Spark pipelines at scale with first class tooling designed to streamline automation and observability. In working with thousands of customers deploying Spark applications, we saw significant challenges with managing Spark as well as automating, delivering, and optimizing secure data pipelines.

“Water, water, everywhere, nor any drop to drink.” The famous line from Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s epic poem “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” has a fitting application to today’s data problem. Enterprises are deluged with data, but they often have no way to leverage it. According to most experts, only a small percentage of data is usable and made useful, and most of it is in the dark — thus the term, “dark data.”

Out with the old; in with the new! If you haven’t already checked out the new Snowflake® interface (aka Snowsight®), make it your New Year’s resolution. Set yourself up for success in 2022 by spending a few minutes getting to know the new features and experiences that are in public preview—available when you click the Snowsight button at the top of your console’s menu bar.