The world is experiencing the greatest information explosion in history:
— 90% of the world’s data was created in the last five years, and most of it is unstructured. The volume, velocity, and variety of data are unprecedented.
— Gartner says by 2020, 25 billion connected things will be generating data 24x7x365.
This incredible expansion in the volume, velocity, and variety of data is the engine driving the torrid pace of innovation that we experience today. Companies everywhere strive to understand more about their customers through data, and are then trying to use that data to better service their needs.  This data, when coupled with analytics and new applications that can be developed quickly and then easily updated, drives competitive advantage. Enterprises that harness the power of this data with new applications better and faster than their competitors will lead their industries.
However, an inordinate percentage of IT budgets is spent on maintenance to “keep the IT lights on” rather than on innovation.

• Companies spend as much as 80 – 90 percent of their IT budgets on maintenance, according to Columbia Business School Professor Rita Gunter McGrath.
• A Forrester Research survey of IT leaders at more than 3,700 companies found that respondents estimate they spend an average of 72% of their IT budget on maintenance, with a mere 28% dedicated to new projects.

Staying competitive in today’s market means embracing the reality of having to do more with less.  Even for those companies whose IT budgets are expanding, they are certainly not expanding at a rate commensurate with the pace of demands for digital innovation through mobile, the Internet of Things (IoT), new applications, and the whole host of other needs being thrown at IT departments from their business units. Just think of how much more you could do with 20 percent, 30 percent, or more budget by lowering your core IT infrastructure costs while adding a more flexible database management system and application platform that enables the power and speed of DevOps to deliver digital business initiatives.
With an OSS relational DBMS and application platform that can be deployed in a wide range of environments from virtualized and container-based to hybrid clouds, you are in a position to fund more digital business innovation initiatives and get them done quickly. You can work aggressively with the Line of Business and the Chief Marketing Officer to prioritize projects and become more relevant to the business.
A key step in the journey to digital competitive advantage and a higher level of customer engagement is to partner with a leading OSS platform company like EnterpriseDB^® (EDB™) for the DBMS and Red Hat for application platforms and cloud infrastructure.
To  take a look at these platforms more deeply, read here !
Pierre Fricke | Chief Marketing Officer at EDB Postgres