To gather insights for DZone's Data Persistence Research Guide, scheduled for release in March, 2016, we spoke to 16 executives, from 13 companies, who develop databases and manage persistent data in their own company or help clients do so.

Here's who we talked to:

Satyen Sangani, CEO, Alation | Sam Rehman, CTO, Arxan | Andy Warfield, Co-Founder/CTO, Coho Data | Rami Chahine, V.P. Product Management and Dan Potter, CMO, Datawatch | Eric Frenkiel, Co-Founder/CEO, MemSQL | Will Shulman, CEO, MongoLab | Philip Rathle, V.P. of Product, Neo Technology | Paul Nashawaty, Product Marketing and Strategy, Progress | Joan Wrabetz, CTO, Qualisystems | Yiftach Shoolman, Co-Founder and CTO and Leena Joshi, V.P. Product Marketing, Redis Labs | Partha Seetala, CTO, Robin Systems | Dale Lutz, Co-Founder, and Paul Nalos, Database Team Lead, Safe Software | Jon Bock, VP of Product and Marketing, Snowflake Computing

Service providers are agnostic with regards to the databases they use. They also have a good understanding of the specific strengths of each database. Specific mentions of non-proprietary databases included: MongoDB, Cassandra, Spark SQL, MySQL, PostgreSQL, Teradata, Vertica, Oracle, AWS RDS for Aurora, Geodatabase, Smallworld, and Microsoft Excel.

Here's what we heard when we asked, "What database(s) do you and your firm use?":

• We’re a connectivity vendor and are agnostic with regards to what we use. We have an active interest in new data sources with growth opportunities like MongoDB, Cassandra, and Spark SQL.

• While we use SaaS products like Salesforce as our CRM, we typically use our own databases that we sell to clients. We eat our own dog food. We do use MySQL for some small data repositories and our website.

• Our software provides a catalog of 20 to 30 databases and datasets. We test with all of them. Internally we use a combination of Postgresql, Teradata, and Vertica.

• We talk to APIs and external access points of our customers’ databases automatically. The model maps the API’s interface and translates to API calls.

• All Microsoft Excel and any SQL and ODBC. We have our own visualization tool.

• Our own, MemSQL.

• Whatever our clients are using.

• Our own, Neo4J.

• Our own, MongoDB. We provide database as a service (DBaaS), a higher level than Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS). AWS RDS and MongoDB are similar DBaaS.

• A variety based on what the client uses though most of what we do is linked to the application itself and depends on the platform. The more you can turn the units into a single autonomic unit, the safer it will be. Multiple pieces require more work to protect the different components.

• Our company began with a focus on spatial data, which we still specialize in today. So, our first database formats were Oracle, Geodatabase, and Smallworld, which over the years has expanded to include PostGIS, MongoDB, and Amazon RDS for Aurora, covering the full spectrum of relational, NoSQL, and as-a-service databases.

• Redis open source.

• Our own, Robin Systems, as well as any client databases.

So, what databases do you and your company use?