SAN JOSE, CA – Enormous amounts of data are being generated daily by smartphones, sensors, video cameras, smart meters, and other connected devices. While this “data avalanche” represents a potential gold mine of insights, a new study commissioned by Cisco says that IT professionals and businesses are challenged to extract strategic value from their data.
The Cisco Connected World Technology Report surveyed IT professionals across 18 countries (including Canada) to examine the IT readiness, challenges, technology gaps, and strategic value of implementing what it terms “Big Data” projects. While most companies are collecting, storing and analyzing data, the report reveals that many are struggling with both the business and IT challenges of Big Data. For example, while 60% of survey respondents agreed that Big Data will help improve decision making and increase their competitiveness, only 28% report they are currently generating strategic value from their data.
Here are some key findings from Cisco report:
Big Data, big potential, big priority
Big Data could provide a competitive edge for those who can take advantage of data in new and creative ways.
- Globally, 60% of survey respondents (49% in Canada) said they believe Big Data can help businesses and countries to improve decision making and global competitiveness, with respondents in China (90%), Mexico (85%), India (82%), Brazil (79%) and Argentina (78%) the most confident in Big Data project benefits.
- Over two-thirds of IT managers agree that Big Data will be a strategic priority for their companies in 2013 and over the next five years as well. Scores were highest in Argentina (89%), China (86%), India (83%), Mexico and Poland (both at 78%).
- What’s needed? More than a third (38%) say that although they have a Big Data solution, they need a strategic plan to take advantage of Big Data.
Obstacles to gaining insights and realizing value
IT managers report several obstacles to adopting Big Data solutions; security tops the list, followed by budget and staffing.
- More than one in four respondents (27%) globally (17% in Canada) said data security and risk management is a major concern. They cited the sheer volume of data, the number of ways to access data, and lack of budget for security as the top reasons why securing data in Big Data projects is such a challenge.
- Security concerns were most prevalent in China (45%), India (41%), the U.S. (36%) and Brazil (33%).
- Together, lack of budget (16%) and lack of time to study Big Data (14%) are cited by a third of respondents as their main obstacles. Lack of budget was of the most concern to Canadian respondents at 25%.
- Almost one in four (23%) said the lack of enough IT staff (13%) or Big Data staff expertise (10%) as main issues, especially in Japan (31%) and Brazil (30%).
Big Data expected to spur investment in IT
More than half of the IT respondents believe Big Data will affect increase their organizations’ IT budgets now and in the future based on technology, personnel and expertise requirements.
- Nearly three out of five (57%) say Big Data will increase their budgets over the next three years.
- Over four out of five surveyed (81%) said all or some Big Data projects will require cloud computing capabilities (41% in Canada). This was especially true in China (78%) and India (76%).
- As a result, cloud adoption may affect the rate of adoption – and benefits – of Big Data efforts.
- Nearly half of IT managers (48%) estimated their network loads would double over the next two years, especially respondents in China (68%) and Germany (60%).
- Nearly one in four (23%) expect to see network loads triple over the next two years.
- Only two out of five surveyed (40%) report they are ready for a surge in network traffic (33% in Canada).
- Over one in four (27%) say they will need better IT policies and security measures.
- Over one in five (21%) say they will need more bandwidth.
Big Data expands the role of IT
Big Data presents an opportunity for IT to add value and create stronger relationships across lines of business that help the bottom line and increase revenue, and provide opportunities for the IT department to become more of a strategic partner within their organizations.
- Not surprisingly, three out of four respondents (73%) said that the information technology department will drive their Big Data strategy.
- In Argentina, a high percentage (58%) said Finance will help drive Big Data.
- In China, a large number (61%) said research and development as well as engineering (47%) will help lead Big Data.
Big Data and IT staffing
While technology is important to Big Data solutions, people are needed with the special skill set and creativity to imagine and realize data’s full potential. There is a growing need for more IT professionals to be trained in this specialized area: for example, the “data scientists” who transform raw data into information leading to discovery and insight, communicate what they've learned in creative and visual ways, and suggest business impact.
- Almost one in four IT managers (22%) say Big Data projects will significantly affect IT staffing, and over half (56%) say it will have at least some impact.
- When asked if they were personally ready to take advantage of Big Data opportunities, 35% felt unreservedly ready, 36% expressed their readiness but felt the technologies and solutions were lacking, and one out of four (24%) did not feel ready at all.
Data in motion: new data source leads to new opportunities
An important, but largely untapped, type of data is the real-time actionable data generated by sources such as devices, sensors and video, which often provide the most value while interacting in real time. Cisco calls this “Data in Motion.” The network can provide useful contextual information to Data in Motion such as a person or device’s location, identity and presence (whether they are “available” or not). This data can be used by applications to make decisions or take actions that are immediately relevant, or even to predict future events. Machine-to-machine communication in factory automation is an example where Data in Motion could be extremely valuable in optimizing a production process. According to the Cisco Visual Networking Index Global Mobile Data Traffic Forecast for 2012 to 2017, there will be more than 1.7 billion machine-to-machine connections by 2017.
The data deluge
Many types of information are collected and/or used today, including both structured and unstructured data. Survey respondents cited these data sources as the most common for their companies:
- 74% are gathering current data.
- 55% have collected historical data.
- 48% bring in data from monitors and sensors.
- 40% take advantage of real-time data that is used and then discarded. Countries with a much higher usage of real-time data were: India (62%), the U.S. (60%) and Argentina (58%).
- 32% are collecting unstructured data, such as video. At 56% China is well above the global average for gathering unstructured data.
The third in an annual series, the 2012 Cisco Connected World Technology Report was commissioned by Cisco and conducted by InsightExpress, an independent market research firm based in the United States. The global study consists of two surveys: one focused on college students and workers aged 18 to 30, and the second focused on IT professionals. Each survey includes 100 respondents from each of 18 countries: United States, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, United Kingdom, France, Germany, Netherlands, Russia, Poland, Turkey, South Africa, India, China, Japan, South Korea, and Australia.
