Many organizations have invested in specialized database technologies to support big transactional and analytical workloads. General-purpose database technology was previously sufficient, but new data requirements demanded more specialized capabilities. Organizations now face challenges with multiple databases, including unbridled copying of data, integration issues, high latency, and the need for combined analytics. To address these issues, unified databases, also known as translytical or HTAP (Hybrid Transaction/Analytical Processing) databases, offer a solution that can handle both workloads concurrently, support multiple data models, and combine different types of analytics in a single query, leading to less copying of data, simpler architectures, access to zero-latency data, and combined analytics.