As we close out 2024, I had the chance to sit down with our own Zhamak Dehghani to reflect on the year’s trends, challenges, and surprises in the world of data infrastructure. It’s been a transformative year—sometimes exciting, sometimes exhausting—and 2025 promises to bring even more opportunities (and a fair share of challenges). Here are the key takeaways from our conversation and what we’re looking forward to in the year ahead.

You can see our full conversation here.

GenAI’s breakthrough and growing pains

There’s no question—2024 was the year of generative AI (GenAI). From conferences to boardroom discussions, GenAI dominated the conversation. Even the most risk-averse industries leaned in, testing proof-of-concept projects, including ubiquitous helpdesk agents and other internal optimization tools.

But as Zhamak and I discussed, these efforts uncovered a big issue: existing data platforms weren’t ready. Unstructured data and rapid experimentation pushed them to their limits, leading to quick fixes that created what you might call “shadow data technology”—untracked and unmanaged silos that live outside traditional systems; sufficient for quick and short-lived PoCs, but a significant cause of technical debt over the long term.‍

Looking to 2025: The push for scalable, resilient platforms to support GenAI is only going to intensify. Organizations need infrastructure that can keep up without adding complexity. At Nextdata, we’re focused on building solutions that make it easier to integrate AI workflows without sacrificing scalability or governance; a unified and extensible platform built to support multiple use cases including GenAI.

Modern data stack: the dream vs. the reality

For years, the modern data stack promised simplicity through modularity: small, specialized tools working together to solve big problems. But in practice, customers found themselves integrating a fragmented, expensive stack where tools didn’t always play nice together. Many started looking for alternatives—and landed on fully integrated platforms and consolidation

These all-in-one solutions streamlined things but came with trade-offs: higher costs, vendor lock-in, and the dreaded replatforming cycle.‍

Looking to 2025: Zhamak predicts the rise of a more balanced “hourglass” model. Picture a narrow core of interoperable standards and technologies that supports decentralized innovation at the top, and a sprawling legacy of investments at the bottom. It’s about creating a sweet spot between agility and control, and we’re excited to help define what that looks like.

Tighter budgets and changing buying habits

The economic realities of 2024 pushed organizations to scrutinize their spending more closely. Many started asking tough questions about ROI and consolidating their toolsets. Others explored building their own platforms, only to discover that creating a scalable, widely adopted solution is easier said than done. We saw much investment redirected to in-house, do it yourself data platforms, with low adoption across the organization and limited ability to serve multiple use cases and support the complexity and diversity of data stacks in the enterprise.‍

Looking to 2025: Expect to see a shift toward more thoughtful investments—tools and platforms that offer flexibility, scalability, and clear value. At Nextdata, we believe that organizations need  full control of building the experience layer of their platform, customized for their organization, built on an extensible and easy-to-integrate data product management layer. We are focused on creating solutions that bridge the gap between what teams want to build and what they need to succeed.

What’s next for 2025?

As we head into 2025, the road ahead is clear: there’s a lot of work to do, but it’s work that matters. At Nextdata, we have some major milestones ahead that we’re excited to share with you soon. We’re determined to continue simplifying the complexities of data infrastructure while helping our customers unlock new opportunities.

So, let’s take a moment to reflect, recharge, and get ready. 2025 is shaping up to be a big year, and we’re thrilled to have you on this journey with us. Here’s to building the future together!