Ubiquitous computing and modern data collection tools have given rise to a new era of data management, in which the data as well as the processing environments are enormous and diverse. In this era in which the terms 'Big Data' and 'Cloud Computing' prevail, the success of data management relies in optimizing data processing on multiple dimensions and delivering data services with multifarious quality guarantees. This talk discusses the challenges and the opportunities of the new era of data management and explores the possibilities and limitations of multi-dimensional data management. The focus is on the incorporation of the notion of cost in traditional and new techniques and the role of data heterogeneity. The talk summarizes recent work on a novel cloud economy model for users that pay on-the-go for the data services they receive and user payments can be used for service provision, infrastructure maintenance and profit. Also, the talk includes a summary of a novel solution for approximate querying of big heterogeneous data in an environment of autonomous data sources.
