Mind the Gap: Coping with Big Data’s Big Costs Posted on : Jun 18 - 2018

In an increasingly data-driven world, with flourishing data volumes and improvements to technological infrastructure, big data promises to benefit businesses in nearly every industry. A study conducted by the Harvard Business Review found that companies leveraging advanced analytics will, on average, experience profit gains and operational improvements between 5 and 6 percent higher than their competitors. By 2020, the revenue generated by big data and business analytics will surpass $200 billion. It would seem the question of whether big data can deliver business value has been firmly settled.

Now, businesses must answer two important follow-ups to capitalize on this opportunity:

• What can big data do for my company?

• How can I build the necessary IT infrastructure and internal operations framework to ensure my big data program’s sustainable success?

These questions help to identify what we’ve dubbed “the big data activation gap.” This is the space between having access to raw data and the point when your big data operation produces quantifiable value.

Many issues underlie the gap, and they can vary from company to company. In 2017, we conducted a survey on the State of DataOps, asking IT and business leaders about their internal big data successes and challenges as they bridge the gap. Only 8 percent of respondents reported a mature big data program. For the 92 percent struggling to bridge the gap, the most common issues were a lack of technical resources, difficulty finding skilled employees and cost containment.

The best first step in bridging the gap? Identify the true value of your data — what it can do for you. Along with this, pinpoint how and when your teams need access to data, and in what form. From there, your business can start to develop an effective strategy around IT infrastructure and hiring — the answer to the How question — to help your company fully activate its data.

Pinpoint the Destination — And Be Specific

Big data is everywhere, and it’s important for businesses to understand how to effectively analyze and draw insights from their data. Data activation allows companies to successfully put data to work across the organization by activating an infinite volume and variety of data for everyone across the business, for any use case. View More