infoTECH Feature

September 24, 2013

Gartner Finds Most Companies Want Big Data Solutions, But Few Are Taking Real Action

Big data management is on everyone’s lips these days. It’s the idea that organizations today collect so much data, but they often fail to use it in any way that could be useful to them to spot trends, for example, or understand their customers better. The idea is to implement analytics solutions to farm through all this data and turn it into actionable intelligence.

According to a new Gartner report, companies may be doing more talking than acting when it comes to big data. The report found that nearly two-thirds of companies surveyed (64 percent) have already purchased or are planning to invest in big data solutions in 2013. This number is up from last year’s 58 percent. Of that 64 percent, 30 percent of respondents say they have already invested in big data tech, 19 percent say they plan to invest within the next year and 15 percent plan to invest within two years.

Here’s the kicker, though: less than 8 percent of the 720 respondents polled by the Gartner (News - Alert) study have actually deployed big data technology.

"The hype around big data continues to drive increased investment and attention, but there is real substance behind the hype," said Lisa Kart, research director at Gartner. "Our survey underlines the fact that organizations across industries and geographies see 'opportunity' and real business value rather than the 'smoke and mirrors' with which hypes usually come."

The survey found that certain industries were ahead of the curve when it comes to big data. Leading the pack in big data investments is the media and communications industry followed by the banking sector and then services companies. Thirty-nine percent of media and communications organizations said that they have already invested in big data, followed by 34 percent of banking organizations and 32 percent of services firms. Planned investments during the next two years are highest for transportation (50 percent), healthcare (41 percent) and insurance (40 percent). However, every vertical industry again shows big data investment and planned investment.




Edited by Rachel Ramsey
FOLLOW US

Subscribe to InfoTECH Spotlight eNews

InfoTECH Spotlight eNews delivers the latest news impacting technology in the IT industry each week. Sign up to receive FREE breaking news today!
FREE eNewsletter

infoTECH Whitepapers