Big data is complicated for even the most experienced Web professional.
While "data"¬ù itself is an important part of any business (as it can illustrate which initiatives are successful and which are not), "big data" does much more than simply skim the surface to provide insights on traffic, clicks or conversions. With so much personal and behavioral information available to be collected and analyzed, implementing a big data initiative is far too complicated for any analytics professional to undertake without some support from a technology platform. In fact, the biggest obstacle that companies face when it comes to leveraging big data is "insufficient existing infrastructure" according to a recent study from CA Technologies.
Despite this significant challenge, business professionals seem to understand just how important the practice of collecting and acting on information can be to their organization's bottom line, as 84 percent of the study's respondents noted they have already, or plan to, implement a big data project within the next year due to well-documented benefits including improving the customer experience (e.g. more complete customer profiles for deeper personalization) and increasing revenue (such as connecting social profiles with potential buyers for better lead generation).
"While organizations face challenges in tackling complexities associated with implementation efforts, the results overwhelmingly demonstrate that companies are committed to developing and deploying fully integrated big data strategies,"¬ù said David Hodgson, general manager, Mainframe, CA Technologies. "By overcoming the obstacles, companies can successfully compete in the application economy."
Despite how overwhelming implementing a big data strategy may seem, the benefits do outweigh the challenges. Brands that realize this and fully leverage all available data will be the ones positioned for success now and in the future.
26%
Of the top five obstacles for leveraging big data, 26 percent of companies cite "security/compliance concerns."
(CA Technologies, April 2015)
2.5 Exabytes
The daily amount of data generated daily is 2.5 exabytes.
(Adepta, March 2015)
125%
The number of organization with deployed/implemented data-driven projects has increased by 125 percent in the last year.
(IDG Enterprise, March 2015)
1 Million
IBM announced that it will educate more than 1 million data scientists and engineers on Spark, a new open source engine for big data processing.
(IBM, June 2015)
51%
In organizations where big data is viewed as the single most important way to gain a competitive advantage, 51 percent have CEOs who personally focus on big data initiatives.
(Forbes Insights, 2015)
$27.36 Billion
The big data market reached $27.36 billion in 2014.
(Wikibon, March 2015)