Analysts call this a virtual database because it can query and analyze without moving any of the data out of position.

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Lucid Intelligence CEO Colin Holder took me on a virtual tour of the database.

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They virtual-met by going through the database ThinkQuest created to identify people interested in participating in the contest.

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Companies like FluidOps make replicating all levels of a virtual landscape--the data, database, application, and operating system--a one-click operation.

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There are apps for webinars and virtual events, managing and appending your database, pushing out messages to our cell phones, running online communities, finding out what people are saying about our brands in social media, marketing with video, online polls and surveys, finding the influencers in our markets, and even initiating direct mail campaigns.

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It claims the software creates a virtual topographical map of your features, which is then measured against the donor database, looking for similar surface textures, vector templating and, of course size of features.

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The database produced by the Sloan survey will form one element of the so-called Virtual Observatory.

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