Startups have the edge in data management says Oracle panel

Panellists at an Oracle roundtable on data management have concluded that newer companies find it easier to use their data to create opportunity than older, larger competitors.

Oracle UK technology director David Rajan explained that many larger companies are hampered by diverse and fragmented legacy systems.

"I'd hate to be the CIO of a large bank," said Rajan. "How do you go from worrying about data security and management across 5,000 databases, and compete with a service like [short-term lender] Wonga?"

Chris Downs, founder of levelbusiness.com, a service providing free access to financial and director information on UK companies, said that newer businesses were able to be more agile in their approach to data.

"A new business like Wonga is able to do its data-mining in real time, pulling information in from the web, and using it to make quick and accurate decisions."

Rajan explained that many of Oracle's customers are larger enterprises with up to 5,000 disparate databases, which makes it extremely hard to derive value from data.

"With so many databases there's the risk of having different versions of the truth, and different levels of data available to different applications. 

"It's like when you call your utility company and one department knows your address, they transfer you and the next department doesn't even know your name."

He added that this can lead to a difficult situation with data security.

"How do you encrypt data across 5,000 databases? Your CEO calls you and says we need to secure our data, and you say, 'Which version?'"

The panel concluded that consolidation of data, reducing the number of databases that IT needs to manage could help.