CompTIA: Big Data Projects Pay Off For Enterprise
CompTIA released its Big Data Insights and Opportunities report, which polled 402 business and IT professionals to gain a better understanding of how enterprises utilize their big data stores. The survey found 72 percent of companies with self-launched big data initiatives have reported results that exceeded their expectations, proving businesses have gleaned enough information from their data to profit.
Big data is yielding big results for enterprise users, according to a new study from CompTIA.
This week, CompTIA released its Big Data Insights and Opportunities report, which polled 402 business and IT professionals to gain a better understanding of how enterprises utilize their big data stores. The survey found 72 percent of companies with self-launched big data initiatives have reported results that exceeded their expectations, proving businesses have gleaned enough information from their data to profit.
However, there is still work to be done if organizations truly wish to harness the full power of their big data engines, according to CompTIA.
Three-quarters of organizations surveyed said they believe their business would be stronger if they could harness all of their data, with the same number expressing a desire to be more aware of data privacy. Additionally, 73 percent said they need better real-time analysis, according to the study.
“The amount of data crossing the wires and airwaves is mind-boggling,” said Seth Robinson, senior director of Technology Analysis at CompTIA, in a statement. “So while individual pieces of a holistic data solution may be improving, these individual pieces are not yet integrated in a way that drives ideal results.”
When asked to list the top reasons for the increased importance of data, 63 percent of respondents said they rely on data for day-to-day operations, while 61 percent cited sensitivity around data privacy. Other responses given for the importance of data included its use in better understanding customers, measuring business objectives, and the location of data – 56 percent of companies said they store data outside their walls.
For organizations who wish to improve their understanding of data and eliminate data fragmentation, Robinson said businesses need to create a strategy for each of the three major stages of data usage: collection and storage, processing and organization and analysis and visualization. Recognizing internal skills gaps and working to remediate them is another critical component if companies hope to gather additional insight from their data.
More than a third of companies surveyed said they are currently working with an IT firm for their data needs, according to the study. However, these interactions tend to be fairly simplistic, consisting of data storage and data backup. The silver lining is that CompTIA believes channel firms will see greater opportunities to offer specific services in the near future once more organizations understand they cannot process all of their data alone.
The survey results are encouraging, considering the fact that harnessing big data has remained a strategic goal for many enterprise companies for the past several years. And CompTIA’s research goes a long way toward disproving the industry’s so-called ignorance regarding how to use big data, and potentially opens the door for savvy channel companies to make big bucks when it comes to helping businesses make effective use of their information repositories.
