Two-thirds (67%) of firms surveyed expect the sheer quantity of data to grow nearly five times by 2025, according to research directed by Splunk and done by True Global Intelligence.
The survey covered 2,259 global business and IT managers from the United States, France, China, Australia, the United Kingdom, Germany, Japan and the Netherlands.
Four in every five (81%) respondents believe data to be very or highly valuable yet the majority (57%) fear that the volume of data is growing faster than their organisations’ ability to keep up.
“Organisations understand the value of data, but are overwhelmed by the task of adjusting to the many opportunities and threats this new reality presents,” said Doug Merritt, president and CEO of Splunk. “There are boundless opportunities for organisations willing to quickly learn and adapt, embrace new technologies and harness the power of data.”
Splunk describes the rise of a “Data Age” that has been accelerated by emerging technologies — such as such as Edge Computing, 5G networking, Internet of Things (IoT), Artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI/ML), Augmented and virtual reality (AR/VR) and Blockchain — powered by, and contributing to, exponential data growth.
It’s these very same technologies that nearly half (49%) of those surveyed expect to use to harness the power of data. However, just 42% feel they have high levels of understanding of all six.
The study found that data is extremely or very valuable to organisations in terms of overall success (81%), innovation (75%) and cybersecurity (78%).
Yet, 66% of IT and business managers report that half or more of their organisations’ data is dark (untapped, unknown, unused) — a 10% increase over the previous year.
Also, 57% say the volume of data is growing faster than their organisations’ ability to keep up, and 47% acknowledge that their organisations will fall behind when faced with rapid data volume growth.
Across industries, IoT has the most current users, although only 28% of respondents. 5G has the fewest and has the shortest implementation timeline at 2.6 years.
Manufacturing leaders predict growth in data volume (78%) than in any other industry, and 76% expect the value of data to continue to rise.
