Stephanie Simone

After a banner year for the 'promise of progress' on AI ambitions, deepening CX fatigue, and ongoing economic volatility, Forrester is predicting 2026 will bring a year of reckoning. According to Sharyn Leaver, chief research officer at Forrester, 'Navigating the coming year will take some mindset shifts: from lofty ambition to pragmatism, from experimentation to accountability, from surface-level engagement to meaningful connection.' To help make the process of identifying useful products and services easier, each year, DBTA presents a list of Trend-Setting Products, highlighting a commitment to innovation and efforts to provide organizations with tools to address changing market requirements.

From the U.S. government letting CISA briefly lapse to recent 'internet-breaking' updates sent out by various companies that form the backbone of web infrastructure, cybersecurity and resilience is more important than ever. Here, security experts share their predictions for incoming threats, security measures, and more in 2026.

Data has taken a new position in the spotlight as the most important part of using AI. If the organization is using corrupt data, insights will vary wildly, and misinformation can damage the company's reputation. Poor data quality costs orga­nizations at least $12.9 million per year on average, according to Gartner research from 2020.

Classiq, a leader in quantum software development platforms, announced an investment by SoftBank Vision Fund 2, with additional participation from CDP Venture Capital, Italy's largest venture capital operator-further strengthening Classiq's position as the foundation for enterprise-scale quantum computing.

Forward Networks, an industry-leading network digital twin platform, announced that it has joined the Infoblox Technology Alliance Partner Program, now offering a certified integration with Infoblox NIOS DDI to enrich IP Address Management (IPAM) through automated, verified network data synchronization.

1Kosmos, a leader in unifying identity proofing and passwordless authentication, announced it has raised $57 million in Series B funding, including a $10 million line of credit from Bridge Bank-enabling the company to meet the escalating demand for identity-first security from enterprises amid rising impersonation threats.

The amount of data and its complexity has been growing at a rapid clip and shows no sign of stopping. To contain this data, organizations have been introducing different types of database platforms alongside relational solutions. To help organizations progress along their data-driven journeys, each year, DBTA presents the Readers' Choice Awards, which provide the opportunity to recognize companies whose products have been selected by the experts-our readers!

With the rapid success of OpenAI's ChatGPT and other emerging types of AI solutions in the last several years, organizations have been scrambling to adopt artificial intelligence by 'any means necessary.' This pivot has changed how organizations think about modern enterprise data architecture.

Teleport, the Infrastructure Identity company, is making a major update to its platform to give security teams unprecedented insight into how identities behave as they move across identity provider, code, cloud, and infrastructure environments.

AI continues to flirt with all aspects of the business, leading organizations to hastily adopt new and emerging technologies. However, it's important to note that while the possibilities seem endless, it's time to move well beyond pilots and proofs of concept to the scaled deployment and operational impact of AI. To help readers gain a greater understanding about this complex area of information technology, the solutions available, and their role in handling real-world challenges, DBTA and Big Data Quarterly present the list of Awesome Companies in AI.

Cloudflare, Inc., the leading connectivity cloud company, announced it is blocking AI crawlers from accessing content without permission or compensation, by default-becoming the first Internet infrastructure provider to do so. Starting today, website owners can choose if they want AI crawlers to access their content and decide how AI companies can use it.

Cloudera, provider of a hybrid platform for data, analytics, and AI, is joining the AI-RAN Alliance, a global consortium committed to integrating AI into telecommunications infrastructure.

Following the explosive growth of AI initiatives at all levels of various organizations last year, tech leaders have pinpointed digital trust as a crucial challenge in software development for 2025, according to the sixth annual 'Reveal Survey Report: Top Software Development Challenges for 2025' survey from Infragistics. To help bring new resources and innovation to light, each year, Database Trends and Applications magazine presents the DBTA 100, a list of forward-thinking companies seeking to expand what's possible with data for their customers.

American political instability leading to monthly 'will they, won't they' back and forth about tariffs, is looking to begin to affect the overall tech sector, potentially impacting the progress of AI advancements, upending data center operations, and semiconductor chips. For U.S. tech firms looking to sidestep the effect of tariffs and future-proof their infrastructure, homegrown innovation is crucial, believes JB Baker, vice president of products at ScaleFlux.

Qlik, a global leader in data integration, analytics, and AI, is launching Qlik Cares, a reimagined and expanded program aimed at transforming how the company supports nonprofits.

Now that the hype behind AI is receding, tech CEOs face intensifying pressure to deliver innovation while managing rising levels of enterprise risk. Startups continue to emerge that bring fresh approaches to accelerating digital transformation, expanding what's possible with AI and analytics, breaking down silos, enhancing security, improving data observability, introducing new types of databases, maintaining data at the edge, advancing Web3, and more. Here are 30 startups DBTA thinks are worth watching in 2025.

The demand for data centers is on the uptick, being driven by the increased growth of digital services from cloud computing, AI, and 5G to apps on smartphones, laptops, and desktops. To keep up with this surge, approximately 4,750 data centers are now actively under construction across the U.S.

ScaleOut Software is adding generative AI and machine-learning (ML) powered enhancements to its ScaleOut Digital Twins cloud service and on-premises hosting platform with the release of Version 4. This latest release introduces generative AI integration through OpenAI's large language model, significantly expanding the ability of digital twins to analyze data, detect anomalies, and provide real-time insights when monitoring complex live systems.

Quantum Corporation is releasing Quantum GO Refresh for the DXi T-Series, a program that provides flexible payment options and hardware refreshes to help customers protect and quickly recover mission-critical data and IT infrastructure.

NVISIONx, a leader in Data Security Posture Management (DSPM), is introducing Nx+RexAI, a new solution designed to tackle the challenges of data governance, regulatory compliance, and data security.