Your Favorite Databases

If there's one thing BI practitioners are passionate about, it's data. If there's another, it's their databases. Our most recent Voting Booth poll showed that, as expected, we have readers who are loyal users of all the Big Three database makers. The numbers aren't even, however. And very few respondents indicate that all databases are created equal when it comes to how well they lend themselves to analytics.

When we asked which database has the most analytics-friendly products, Microsoft led the pack with 36 percent of respondents' votes. Oracle followed with 25 percent, while IBM garnered 14 percent of votes. That puts IBM just ahead of the rest of the combined pack -- 12 percent of votes were for "other." A significant number of voters -- 13 percent -- say all database manufacturers are the same when it comes to analytics-friendliness.

One of our most popular stories of the summer so far was put together by our contributing writer, Jacques Surveyer, who argues that today, BI sells databases. In his piece, "BI: The New Database Differentiator," Surveyer gives an in-depth comparison of the BI capabilities of each of the Big Three's latest database entrants. If you haven't read it yet, check it out now for a full review.