About

Tony Baer is the founding principal of dbInsight LLC and the cohost of the podcast It's About Data. He focuses on data and everything that touches it. We provide independent counsel to data/analytics technology providers and enterprises, navigating a changing world where cloud deployment, artificial intelligence, and access to new forms of data are redefining what's possible.

Understanding how to work with data requires understanding how to work with AI. Context is king. AI helps us manage and gain insight from data, while data provides context for AI. Increasingly, working with data will also require understanding how agents decide how we connect with data and trigger the right models; why semantics are critical for ensuring AI discovers the "right" data; and how selecting the right infrastructure is essential for ensuring delivery of the right results without breaking the bank.

Baer capitalizes on over a decade of thought leadership at Ovum where he created two new research practices, becoming one of Ovum's most visible analysts. Continuing that role, Baer partners with Matt Housley on @It's About Data, a 15-minute weekly podcast on YouTube, LinkedIn, and Spotify that currently reaches 3500+ subscribers. He also periodically contributes commentaries for Silicon Angle.

During his 10 years as a principal analyst at Ovum, Baer was one of Ovum’s most heavily-billed analysts and provided strategic counsel to enterprises spanning the Fortune 100 to fast-growing privately held companies. Cited by Ovum’s parent company Informa as Brand Ambassador, Baer established successful research practices in the firm’s fastest growing categories, including big data, cloud data management, and product lifecycle management. He defined "Fast Data," creating the roadmap for streaming analytics. He pioneered research calling for emergent approaches to data governance and data quality that became common practice for data integration tool vendors.

While at Ovum, Baer built an audience numbering tens of thousands of followers while part of the Big on Data blogging team at ZDNet, and his former his Twitter blogging feeds.

Baer is the founder of the Data Gang, a group numbering over a dozen of the industry's most knowledgeable data analysts. With over 250 years of collective experience, data and technology providers look to the Data Gang as the go-to industry analyst focus group for reviewing product and go to market strategy.