Big Data Impact on Analytics

For the last three years, ESG research has indicated that  managing data growth is among the top priorities for IT organizations.  With all of the marketing hype around "Big Data," we wanted to look into the challenges IT organizations are experiencing related to large data volumes --with a specific focus on data analytics and integration.  Today, ESG published the research report, The Impact of Big Data on Data Analytics, with our findings.

To begin with, ESG defines Big Data as: "Data sets that exceed the boundaries and sizes of normal processing capabilities and force users to take a non-traditional approach to data management." The challenges organizations face will depend on the volume of data, the speed with which it needs to be processed or analyzed, and the amount of additional complexity that it injects.  Cost is typically the tipping point that makes IT organizations want to look at alternatives to what they are currently doing today.

In order to assess current data analytics and data management trends and the impact large data volumes have, as well as plans for the next 12-18 months, ESG surveyed 270 North American IT professionals representing large midmarket (500 to 999 employees) and enterprise-class (1,000 employees or more) organizations. Respondents were familiar with their organization's current database environment as well as forward-looking strategies involving data analytics and integration initiatives.

The survey was designed to answer the following questions:

• How important is the enhancement of data analytics capabilities relative to all of an organization's IT priorities?
• What challenges do organizations face with respect to their current data analytics technologies and processes?
• How do organizations plan to deal with larger data sets during data analytics exercises?
• What are organizations' spending plans for data analytics in 2011 and beyond?
• How are organizations planning to address their data analytics and data integration challenges?
• What is driving the adoption or need for a MapReduce compute platform?
• What challenges do organizations face with respect to their data integration needs?
• How does data growth impact organizations in general?

Survey participants represented a wide range of industries including manufacturing, financial services, communications and media, health care, and retail.

ESG subscription clients can access the report, The Impact of Big Data on Data Analytics by logging into our website.  For more information on the contents and findings of this report, all users can take a look at the ESG Research Report The Impact of Big Data on Data Analytics Executive Summary.  We hope you find this research valuable.