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BIG DATA BUSINESS:

9 TRENDS
SHAPING
THE FUTURE
OF DATA
ANALYTICS

IDG Communications, Inc.

2 BIG DATA BUSINESS: 9 TRENDS SHAPING THE FUTURE OF DATA ANALYTICS

INTRODUCTION
With data becoming pervasive in business, it’s easy to assume that most organizations have built core
competencies around big data analytics. The harsh reality is that 67% of IT leaders define their big
data environment as “chaotic.”

That’s a key finding in a new IDG survey of CIOs and other IT leaders. These technology decision-makers
describe their biggest big data challenges and point to solutions that can help bring more value to any
organization. This report examines the state of the big data landscape and outlines how enterprises can
capitalize on nine trends shaping the future of analytics:

1 BIG DATA IS EVERYWHERE

2 EXPECTATIONS ARE SKY-HIGH

3 ANALYTICS IS STILL THE WILD WEST

4 SECURITY REMAINS TOP OF MIND

5 INTEGRATION IS A MAJOR HURDLE

6 THE CLOUD IS BREAKING DOWN BARRIERS

7 THE HUNT IS ON FOR DATA VALUE

8 THERE’S A NEED FOR DATA SPEED

9 THE “CITIZEN ANALYST” ROLE IS TAKING ROOT

3 BIG DATA BUSINESS: 9 TRENDS SHAPING THE FUTURE OF DATA ANALYTICS

TREND 1: BIG DATA IS EVERYWHERE

The term “big data” has been around since the 1990s,1 yet the explosion of data in the past few years has driven home
its relevance and importance. The world is already generating an estimated 2.5 exabytes of data every day. That’s
expected to rise to 463 exabytes daily by 2025. 2

IT and business leaders know they must extract as much value as possible to move with speed and gain competitive
advantage. So, it’s not surprising that 95% of surveyed organizations have deployed big data initiatives on a department
or enterprise level.

In many instances, however, this first wave of big data deployments has been overrun by broader digital transformation
efforts, along with new data sources such as the Internet of Things. These are amplifying the volume, variety, and velocity
of data and make advanced, rapid analysis a priority.

In a recent interview,3 Gartner Research Director Jorgen

Heizenberg said:

95%


of surveyed
organizations have
“Today, we are witnessing a paradigm shift from the way
we manage data and analytics. On the one hand, we have
an abundance of data and information available to us, and
deployed big data initiatives on a on the other hand, we lack the culture and human capa-
bilities to properly collect, analyze, and manage data. This
department or enterprise level. impacts one’s ability to judge and make the right decisions
for the business.”

WHAT’S NEXT: As big data initiatives grow in scope and

sophistication, can your workforce keep pace with the
technology? CIOs must ensure the right skills and training
are in place to support advanced analytics initiatives
within IT and across the entire business.

FIGURE 1.
Current state of big data in the enterprise Limited projects in some departments
or groups only (not enterprise-wide)

41% 22% 22% 10% 5%

Enterprise-wide projects Enterprise-wide projects Regular, ongoing projects in Working on pilot
on a regular, ongoing basis on a limited, irregular basis some departments or groups project to evaluate
but not enterprise-wide benefits for
the organization
Percentages may not equal 100% due to rounding
No big data projects
1% yet, still in the
1
[Link] planning stages
2
[Link]
3
[Link] Source: IDG
4 BIG DATA BUSINESS: 9 TRENDS SHAPING THE FUTURE OF DATA ANALYTICS

TREND 2: EXPECTATIONS ARE SKY-HIGH

A wave of excitement and urgency has accompanied the data explosion. IT and business leaders know there’s hidden value
within data, and expectations are high that capturing new insights from this data will unlock operational efficiencies and
business growth. These expectations translate into a variety of business objectives that are influencing data investments,
including better decision-making, security improvements, productivity increases, and enhanced customer experiences.

“My predecessors would have made a lot of decisions based on their experience and intuition. They are still very important,
but you have got to triangulate them with data,” Sim Tshabalala, CEO of Standard Bank, said in PwC’s 22nd Annual Global
CEO survey.4 “As I always say: ‘In God we trust; everybody else, bring data.’”

WHAT’S NEXT: To meet heightened expectations for

IT and business leaders know business improvements, CIOs must continue to work
closely with functional groups such as HR, finance, and
there’s hidden value within data. supply chain to align data goals and initiatives. According
to Gartner,5 a business-driven strategy is key:

FIGURE 2. “Data and analytics leaders have to deal with delivering

Business goals driving investments for business outcomes from their data-driven programs
data initiatives in the next 12 months today — and at the same time build an effective data and

Multiple selections allowed

analytics organization that is fit for tomorrow. In order
to meet these challenges, such leaders need to take
Improve decision-making 48% ownership and develop a data and analytics strategy.”

Improve security/minimize risk 46%

Some IT leaders are already moving in this direction, per
Improve employee
44% IDG’s “State of the CIO” report: Strategic activities are
productivity and morale
taking up more of the CIO’s time, up to 34% in 2019
Improve customer experiences
43% compared with 25% in 2018.
and relationships

Reduce time to market for new

products and services 38%

Uncover new revenue

opportunities
37%

Optimize the supply chain 35%

Change the way we
organize operations 32%

Redefine product development 29% Source: IDG

4
[Link]
5
[Link]
5 BIG DATA BUSINESS: 9 TRENDS SHAPING THE FUTURE OF DATA ANALYTICS

TREND 3: ANALYTICS IS STILL THE WILD WEST

IT leaders are deploying multiple analytics tools to harness all of the data flowing into their organizations. Nearly two-thirds
(64%) of IT leaders say they’re using two or more analytics solutions. And those solutions often are scattered across
different parts of the business, resulting in a lot of virtual wheel-spinning: Of survey respondents, 67% acknowledge that big
data analytics is “chaotic” at their organization, and 70% agree that data is underutilized.

These findings should give pause to IT leaders. Whether the problem is undiscovered insights or simply the inability to
connect dots across the organization, the enterprise is limited if it can’t use the data it has.

WHAT’S NEXT: Organizations looking to tame the Wild

West of big data must define models that create a single

67%


acknowledge that
big data analytics is
source of truth for the enterprise. For example, some
companies are using sophisticated data-modeling capa-
bilities to build enterprise-grade semantic models into
“chaotic” at their organization business intelligence datasets, which are then visualized
in reports and dashboards. To do this, IT leaders need to
leverage technologies such as the cloud and machine
learning to achieve scale and speed, and to forge strategic
partnerships with service providers to fill gaps in their
in-house capabilities.

FIGURE 3.
Data analytics: chaotic, underutilized

Big data analytics is chaotic at my organization

today (multiple solutions across scattered teams).
30% 37% 16% 8% 9%

My organization’s data is not being

utilized to the full extent that it could be.
30% 40% 12% 8% 10%

n Strongly agree n Somewhat agree n Neutral n Somewhat disagree n Strongly disagree Source: IDG
6 BIG DATA BUSINESS: 9 TRENDS SHAPING THE FUTURE OF DATA ANALYTICS

TREND 4: SECURITY REMAINS TOP OF MIND

Despite increased attention on enterprise security, high-profile data breaches continue to generate headlines — such as the
500 million Marriott records breached in 2018 and the Equifax breach of 2017, which exposed 145 million consumers’ personal
credit details. IT leaders understand the need for ongoing diligence: Concern over data security is the top inhibitor to
operationalizing big data, and security is the area needing the most improvement for demonstrating ROI from data initiatives.

It’s a big hill to climb. Given the high volumes of data, the variety of formats, and the need to support data-driven communi-
cation and collaboration beyond the traditional firewall, IT leaders must find the right mix of in-house and third-party technol-
ogies and processes to defend, detect, and respond to potential data breaches. For example, more than two-thirds (68%) of
organizations say they’re taking extra measures to protect unstructured data such as texts, videos, photos, and email.

IT and security teams need to collaborate more closely than ever to identify threats and vulnerabilities proactively across
their data ecosystems. They’re making progress: Nearly two-thirds (64%) of respondents in IDG’s “State of the CIO” survey
say security is tightly integrated with IT strategy, a figure expected to jump to 82% in three years.

WHAT’S NEXT: IT and security teams should align to

68%
emphasize security capabilities when evaluating analytics
of organizations solutions. For example, it’s important to ask vendors if
say they’re taking their technologies support fine-grain, role-based, and
row-level security.
extra measures to protect
unstructured data

FIGURE 4.
Security’s influence on data-driven initiatives

TOP CHALLENGES WITH OPERATIONALIZING BIG DATA DATA MANAGEMENT AREAS IN NEED OF IMPROVEMENT
Multiple selections allowed TO BOOST ROI POTENTIAL Multiple selections allowed

Data security concerns 42% Improve data security 59%

IT budget constraints 33% Improve data
accessibility/availability 50%
Data integration challenges 32%
Increase ability to extract
Lacking technical expertise 28% data from both cloud and 41%
non-cloud locations
Concerns about the data
accessibility 24%
Implement or improve data
governance strategy 41%

Reduce data storage

requirements/cost 39%

Increase ability to extract

data from various
structured and
39%
unstructured data sources
Source: IDG
 7 BIG DATA BUSINESS: 9 TRENDS SHAPING THE FUTURE OF DATA ANALYTICS

TREND 5: INTEGRATION IS A MAJOR HURDLE

An emphasis on security has led to a mini data explosion unto itself, as security monitoring tools generate large data sets
that are analyzed for threats. Security, however, is just one of dozens of data sources that IT is trying to corral, cutting across
multiple applications, databases, and business systems.

The number of data sources is compounded by the silos of data that exist in individual business units, departments, and
geographies. This creates a variety of significant integration challenges, ranging from varied data formats and storage
requirements to time-consuming, manual data exports and imports.

Digital transformation efforts depend on being able to integrate data from multiple applications and data sources. Strategic
IT leaders need analytics tools that are agnostic with respect to data sources, platforms, and data management: Of IT
leaders surveyed, 81% say this feature is critical or very important.

FIGURE 5. WHAT’S NEXT: Ask vendors if their analytics solutions

Most common data sources have a built-in abstraction layer that keeps data preparation
Multiple selections allowed independent of the underlying source. This approach
provides connectivity to a multitude of data sources.
Security monitoring tools 31%
Transactional data 30%
Relational databases 27%
Third-party databases 27% FIGURE 6.

Customer databases 27%

Challenges of pulling together data
from multiple sources for analysis
Data warehouses 26%
Web analytics applications 25%
30% 33% 26% 7% 5%
External cloud data accessed
by APIs
23%
Varying data storage requirements
Productivity applications 21%
Emails 20% 23% 28% 37% 10% 3%
Machine-generated/
sensor data
20% The need for manual data exports and imports

Social media 17%

20% 34% 30% 13% 4%
Geo-location data 15%
Varying data security requirements
Instant messages 15%
Government/
Public domain data
14% 19% 40% 30% 10% 3%
Hadoop sources 13% Varying data formats (e.g., structured and unstructured data)
Images 11% n Extremely challenging n Very challenging n Somewhat challenging
NoSQL databases 11% n Not very challenging n Not at all challenging

Percentages may not equal 100% due to rounding Source: IDG

8 BIG DATA BUSINESS: 9 TRENDS SHAPING THE FUTURE OF DATA ANALYTICS

TREND 6: THE CLOUD IS BREAKING DOWN BARRIERS

The benefits of the public cloud have moved beyond cost savings as organizations expand their transitions to cloud-based
applications, platforms, and infrastructure. Early concerns about moving data to the cloud have given way to an under-
standing that security protections from cloud service providers are often more robust than individual organizations can
provide on their own.

This acceleration to the cloud is evident with analytics solutions: Thirty-four percent now in use are cloud-based, but 71%
of IT leaders say they’re seeking a cloud-based deployment model when evaluating new analytics tools. They understand
that the cloud provides the scale and speed organizations require to rapidly process and analyze large data sets.

Some legacy challenges remain. Nearly three in 10 organizations say they’re managing all of their data in on-premises
environments; just 8% say they’re using the cloud for all data management. A hybrid model is most common, with 42% of
organizations using a mix of cloud, on-premises, and offsite/non-cloud environments.

WHAT’S NEXT: Expect CIOs to continue to move data

34%


of analytics tools in
use are cloud-based
and analytics capabilities to the cloud as they realize the
benefits of scale and functionality — and make a strong
business case to senior leadership for doing so. The
growing sophistication and security of cloud platforms
make it increasingly difficult to justify investment in
on-premises infrastructure.

FIGURE 7.
Where data is managed

29% 21% 42% 8%

Traditional on-premises Offsite non-cloud Hybrid (mix of on-premises, Cloud first (all data
environment only environment only cloud, offsite environments) managed in the cloud)

Source: IDG
9 BIG DATA BUSINESS: 9 TRENDS SHAPING THE FUTURE OF DATA ANALYTICS

TREND 7: THE HUNT IS ON FOR DATA VALUE

The primary role of analytics is to find valuable insights that lead to business improvements (see Trend 2). Yet, the challenges
that our survey uncovered keep many organizations from achieving that objective. Just 31% of organizations say they’re
adept at extracting valuable insights from data across multiple sources to create trusted business assets. The rest consider
themselves average at best.

While business and IT leaders strive for data-driven operations that drive significant value to the business, this goal eludes
most organizations. As noted earlier, security concerns and integration challenges are persistent barriers to analytics excel-
lence. Culture and skills also play roles: Data science tops IT leaders’ list6 as the toughest skill set to hire, ahead of other
in-demand talents for security, artificial intelligence, and cloud services. Broadly, corporate cultures might not be ready to
embrace a data-driven approach to decision-making, because either they’re not structured properly to support it, or the
workforce is wary of potential disruptions to the ways they currently work.

Culture and process are as important as technology during

the transition to an organization that uses data to create WHAT’S NEXT: Change management is a critical part of
new sources of value across the enterprise. the transition to data-driven operations. CIOs might need
to take a step back from the ad hoc analytics initiatives
popping up across the organization and create a holistic
strategy that addresses technology, culture, and process.
We’re also likely to see an acceleration away from legacy

31%


of organizations
say they’re adept
environments that inhibit analytics maturity. It’s worth
noting, for example, that IT leaders who say they’re closer
to data-driven culture objectives are using cloud-based
at extracting valuable insights data analytics tools more heavily.

FIGURE 8.
Ability to operationalize data to create trusted business assets
(Rating from 0%100%)

31% 37% 32%

High performer Average performer Low performer
(rating of 70% or more) (rating between 51-69% (rating below 50%)

Source: IDG

6
[Link]
10 BIG DATA BUSINESS: 9 TRENDS SHAPING THE FUTURE OF DATA ANALYTICS

TREND 8: THERE’S A NEED FOR DATA SPEED

Business moves fast, but the pace has ratcheted up this century as the internet leveled the playing field for smaller
companies and new entrants across industries. Today, companies of all sizes must be nimble and make decisions quickly
to remain competitive.

The good news is they have a wealth of data. The challenge

is the need for rapid query processing and number WHAT’S NEXT: Automation of query processing and
crunching to advance the speed of decision-making. analysis is vital to improving data-driven decision-making.
“Virtually every aspect of data management and analytics
“The amount of data is growing quickly, and the urgency content development, up and down the stack, is lever-
of transforming data into value in real time is growing at aging itself to automate analytic processes [and] the
an equally rapid pace,” Gartner vice president and distin- way we get information from those systems to act in an
guished analyst Donald Feinberg said at a recent analytics optimized way,” Rita Sallam, research vice president at
conference.7 Gartner, told CIO.8

IT leaders understand this need for data speed. Users are Another consideration: aggregation features. The ability
asking for real-time data aggregation and analysis, as well to aggregate data from multiple sources into one
as faster access to data. Yet, these capabilities are among interface or report can improve query performance
the most challenging to provide. across petabyte-scale datasets dramatically.

FIGURE 9.
Enabling business users: opportunities and challenges
TOP DATA ANALYTICS
CAPABILITIES THAT IT NEEDS TO ABILITY TO PROVIDE DESIRED
ENABLE FOR BUSINESS USERS CAPABILITIES TO BUSINESS USERS
Multiple selections allowed Extremely/very challenging
Aggregate and analyze data in real time 45% 56%
Improve time to data availability
(e.g., reduce refresh times) 44% 53%

Easy-to-use tools to prepare data for analysis 41% 54%

Connect various on- and off-premises
(including cloud) data sources 40% 52%

Enable collaboration on analytics projects

between cross-functional teams 36% 56%

Improve query speeds 36% 50%

Analyze data via mobile devices 35% 54%
Self-service reporting and dashboards 30% 51%
Support for unstructured data sources
such as social media 27% 58%

Leverage new technology such as

natural language processing 26% 53%

Source: IDG
7
[Link]
8
[Link]
11 BIG DATA BUSINESS: 9 TRENDS SHAPING THE FUTURE OF DATA ANALYTICS

TREND 9: THE “CITIZEN ANALYST”

ROLE IS TAKING ROOT
With an ongoing shortage of skill sets in data science, companies need to reduce the burden on IT by empowering individ-
uals to become “citizen analysts.” This trend requires user-friendly tools that allow workers to perform analysis and pull their
own insights from the data that’s most relevant to their roles.

Tools that leverage advanced automation, reusable data models, and artificial intelligence provide a path for the citizen
analyst. This shift also helps address cultural resistance. When users realize they can get the answers they need quickly
without relying on specialized skill sets, they’re more likely to embrace the tools at their disposal.

IT leaders understand the need to balance functionality and usability; 86% of respondents agree that analytics solutions
should be both powerful and user-friendly. In addition, 82% agree that self-service analytics is a top priority at their
organizations, and 66% say these capabilities are critical when evaluating new tools and solutions.

There’s a potential disconnect in the desire for self-service

analytics and their actual deployment: Only 30% view self- WHAT’S NEXT: IT leaders should seek analytics tools with
service reporting and dashboards as a top capability for IT to self-service capabilities that empower non-technical users
enable. CIOs will need to balance the needs of both IT and to easily access, prepare, and visualize data. To further
citizen analysts to give users across the business the analytics reduce the burden on IT staff, CIOs must accelerate auto-
capabilities they need to succeed. mation efforts while adopting analytics tools embedded
with artificial intelligence and machine learning. Looking
forward, Gartner predicts that “conversational analytics”
will gain traction, using natural language processing and
virtual assistant technology to make everyday queries
easier for users.

FIGURE 10.
Self-service is a priority

Providing self-service analytics to make data more

accessible to business users is a top priority.
38% 44% 13% 4% 2%

n Strongly agree n Somewhat agree n Neutral n Somewhat disagree n Strongly disagree

IMPORTANCE OF CAPABILITIES WHEN EVALUATING BIG DATA ANALYTICS TOOLS AND SOLUTIONS

Self-service capabilities 21% 45% 29% 5% 1%

n Critical n Very important n Somewhat important n Not very important n Not at all important
Percentages may not equal 100% due to rounding Source: IDG
12 BIG DATA BUSINESS: 9 TRENDS SHAPING THE FUTURE OF DATA ANALYTICS

HOW TO QUIET THE CHAOS

CIOs risk being overwhelmed by multiple data sources, multiple tools, and rising expectations from executive teams and
end users alike to find new ways to leverage data-driven insights across the organization.

This big data analytics landscape presents a prime opportunity for strategic CIOs to shine. With 64% saying9 they’re adding
oversight of data analytics to their roles in 2019, it’s time to pick a focus area or objective and run with it.

“More organizations embrace a data culture that unifies information from many sources to drive business decisions,” says
Arun Ulag, Microsoft general manager, engineering. “For a data-centric culture to thrive, it requires everyone to work from
the same data platform and intuitive tools that let them leverage vast quantities of data quickly to reach insights.”

A good first step to quieting the chaos is to identify which business intelligence (BI) tool can help simplify the complexities
organizations face today. IT professionals realize how critical data is to their organizations; the next step in unlocking its power
is further alignment of business and IT data goals to understand how big data analytics solutions can resolve concerns today
and going forward.

About the survey

To better understand the most critical big data analytics trends affecting enterprises, IDG conducted a quantita-
tive survey among 200 U.S.-based IT leaders at companies with 500+ employees, across all industries. To qualify,
respondents had to be involved in decisions related to big data analytics initiatives such as strategy, needs analysis,
recommendations, and solutions purchase/approval. Microsoft sponsored the survey, which was conducted online
between April 30, 2019, and May 9, 2019.

9
[Link]
13 BIG DATA BUSINESS: 9 TRENDS SHAPING THE FUTURE OF DATA ANALYTICS

Why Power BI?

Microsoft Power BI addresses many of the challenges that organizations encounter with their big data initiatives:

n SUPPORTS MASSIVE SCALE. With Power BI Aggregations and Azure SQL Data Warehouse, organizations
can perform petabyte-scale analytics with instant response times, exploring and analyzing trillions of rows
of data and interactively extracting insights on the fly. Aggregations can dramatically reduce the cost of
unlocking large datasets for decision making.

n ELIMINATES ANALYTICS CHAOS AND THE NEED FOR MULTIPLE TOOLS. Power BI establishes a common,
cost-effective analytics platform that enables seamless collaboration across organizational data.

n IMPROVES DECISION-MAKING. A single platform that intelligently reacts to data changes and applies them
globally ensures that business users have the latest information and can unlock insights quickly.

n ENHANCES SECURITY. Power BI provides a single, centralized security model with end-to-end visibility,
control, and operational reporting capabilities to safeguard against security, privacy, governance, regulatory,
and compliance concerns.

n EMPOWERS CITIZEN ANALYSTS WHILE REDUCING THE BURDEN ON IT. Power BI features self-service
functionality and provides business users with access to consumable dashboards and reports. In addition,
it encourages data exploration with its intuitive, familiar interfaces that naturally integrate with all the Microsoft
services the business already uses.

n REMOVES THE DATA INTEGRATION BARRIER. Whether cloud-based or on-premises, Power BI seamlessly
integrates data with built-in or custom data connectors, creating a single, accurate view of critical
business insights.

n PROVIDES DATA SPEED. Backed by Azure, Power BI enables companies to analyze and extract insights
from large datasets with instant response times. In addition, it easily integrates with artificial intelligence
and machine learning models to fuel data analysis.

Power BI users are more likely to report their organizations have ongoing, enterprise-wide big data initiatives —
52% compared to 33% of non-Power BI users. This indicates ease of use and early success with pilot and depart-
mental projects, which means Power BI can be rolled out on a regular basis throughout the organization.

In addition, Power BI users are more likely to agree that analytics solutions should be powerful and user-friendly,
and that providing self-service analytics is a top priority.

Discover why it’s called Power BI. Visit [Link].