For many companies, it's no longer sufficient for their business intelligence (BI) systems to use day-old information as the most current data for supporting decision making and reporting activities. Businesses increasingly need to leverage fresher data -- hourly, near real-time, or even real-time - from their operational systems in order to empower executives and front-line employees alike to improve customer relationships, revenue, and operational efficiencies. That requires IT to look beyond traditional batch-oriented techniques.

This SearchDataManagemet.com E-Guide explores the growing demand for operational BI and active data warehousing, and why real-time data is a key component to making those solutions possible. Also discover expert advice on three paths to real-time data integration (CDC, EII, and messaging middleware) and an overview of Gartner's recent data integration Magic Quadrant.