DATAVAULT SCOOPS PORTSMOUTH’S FIRST INNOVATIVE BUSINESS OF THE YEAR AWARD

Datavault has been given a major business accolade after being named south Hampshire’s Innovative Business of the Year for its dbtvault product.

The News’ first-ever Innovation Awards saw Datavault beat off strong competition from the health, defence and maritime sectors to land the prestigious award.

Some 40 other businesses based in the Portsmouth area entered the awards, including international firms such as BAE Systems and Subsea Craft – which has designed a stealth diving boat for use by Special Forces which is currently undergoing sea trials.

The Digital Innovation of the Year award, which the News said was hotly contested, was given for dbtvault – a free open-source quick start tool. helping organisations and businesses all over the world – from America to Australia – to modernise their data platforms and analytics operations.

The dbtvault tool was developed by Datavault’s team of data engineers and consultants, to help organisations design and construct a working data warehouse, using the Data Vault method, in a matter of days and hours, rather than months as used to be common practice in the industry.

The judging panel, including academics from the University of Portsmouth, felt that Datavault’s dbtvault tool was “head and shoulders above the other entries.”. The judges were so impressed that having awarded Datavault one of the nine categories up for grabs on the night at Portsmouth’s Village Hotel, they had no hesitation in naming Datavault as winners of the top award too.

The News’ Innovative Business of the Year Award was chosen from all nine of the individual category winners, making it the most prestigious prize of the night in front of a crowd of 140 people from the city’s business community.

The judges said they were “wowed” by Datavault’s entry after hearing how the company, which has more than doubled its workforce size over the past year, had been redoubling its efforts to help clients deal with the ever-growing size and sources of their data sets.

Among the other sponsors were the University of Portsmouth, BAE Systems and Portsmouth City Council. Dr Chris Worrall, innovation director at the University of Portsmouth, said he was “so excited” to take part in the awards celebrating the work of the most innovative businesses in the region. he said: “As a sponsor, I got to see a lot of the entries and I was surprised by the amount of businesses lurking in our region who have not been brought into the spotlight like this before.”