An evolution of the database, from counting crops to self-driving systems
It was roughly 7000 years ago that Mesopotamians began tracking the yield of their crops, effectively becoming our first data analysts. Today, companies record and manage data in all shapes and sizes, drawing insight from it to work smarter and better serve their customers. The principles have remained the same for millennia, but the rise of AI and autonomous systems have unlocked a new world of opportunity in the zettabytes of information we collect.
How did we get here? How did we get from counting crops, to storing huge volumes of information, to self-driving, self-managing systems?
Let’s take a trip down database memory lane:
Autonomous - the way forward
We’ve come a long way from counting crops and cattle. The days of simply storing information have given way to a digital era, where computer intelligence is baked directly into the data we collect from a growing range of sources.
The groundwork is now being laid for businesses to become full autonomous, with every system and process able to manage, update, repair and secure itself. Just as cloud computing took the datacenter from CAPEX to OPEX, autonomous systems promise to help users do even more with their data, while putting in less effort and costs.
This doesn’t mean people will have no place in the companies going forward. In fact, as our research suggests, with machines taking on more administrative tasks, employees will be able to dedicate more time and energy to using data strategically, which is where they add the most value.
The Oracle Autonomous Database marks just the beginning of our autonomous journey. Inspired by rising customer demand, we have now taken a major leap forward with the launch of the Oracle Autonomous Database Dedicated service. Using this service, customers can easily move from manually operated on-premise databases to a fully-autonomous and private database, hosted in the Oracle Cloud.