The Cambridge Report on Database Research
© 2025 EPFL
Since 1989, and every 5 years, a group of database system researchers gather to reflect on the state of our field, to discuss the key directions the community is pursuing, and to speculate about the opportunities that lie ahead. The last meeting took place in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA in October 2023.
On October 19–20, 2023, the authors of this report convened in Cambridge, MA, to discuss the state of the database research field1, its recent accomplishments and ongoing challenges, and future directions for research and community engagement. This gathering continues a long-standing tradition in the database community, dating back to the late 1980s, in which researchers meet roughly every five years to produce a forward-looking report.
This report summarizes the key takeaways from the discussions. It begins with a retrospective on the community’s academic, open-source, and commercial successes over the past five years. It then turns to future opportunities, with a focus on core data systems—particularly in the context of cloud computing and emerging hardware—as well as on the growing impact of data science, data governance, and generative AI.
This document is not intended as an exhaustive survey of all technical challenges or industry innovations in the field. Rather, it reflects the perspectives of senior community members on the most pressing challenges and promising opportunities ahead.
The report is available here: https://arxiv.org/pdf/2504.11259.
Anastasia Ailamaki and Sam Madden - 2023 Database Research Meeting Organizers and Report Editors