(NOTE: This story was originally posted to CRN.com May 1.)

Reining In The Explosion In Data

How big is "big data?" The total amount of digital data worldwide is forecast to explode from 16 zettabytes this year to 180 zettabytes by 2025. That includes data generated by IT systems in banking, retail and other industries; social media and other consumer activities; and the billions of networked devices being connected through the Internet of things.

That poses a major challenge for businesses trying to manage, integrate and analyze all that data in order to operate more efficiently, understand their customers' needs, and identify possible competitive advantages.

As part of CRN's 2017 Big Data 100, we've put together a list of 35 data management and integration technology companies that solution providers should be aware of, offering everything from next-generation database software, to tools for integrating disparate data, to systems for managing live streams of data.