IDG Enterprise's 2016 Data & Analytics Research Highlights Adoption, Spending, Security, and Vendor Selection

/EINPresswire.com/ -- FRAMINGHAM, MA--(Marketwired - July 28, 2016) - IDG Enterprise - the leading enterprise technology media company, composed of CIO, Computerworld, CSO, InfoWorld, ITworld and Network World - reveals in the 2016 IDG Enterprise Data & Analytics research that 69% of organizations have either implemented data-driven projects or are planning to. Data & analytic strategies and practices stretch beyond storing 247.1 terabytes of data-which most organizations anticipate having to deal with in the next 12-18 months. The focus is on understanding where the data is coming from, how it can be used, security implications and the solutions that vendors offer to alleviate internal burdens brought on by additional data & analysis.

Integrating Data & Analytics into Business
Technology budgets are staying strong as companies continue to harness data for insights and competitive gain. In the coming 12-18 months, 44% of organizations will increase their spending on data-driven initiatives and an additional 35% will have budgets remain consistent with the previous year (Click to Tweet). This translates to enterprise organizations (1,000+ employees) spending an average of $13.9 million on data-driven initiatives and SMBs (<1,000 employees) spending $4.3 million, a drastic jump from the $1.6 million SMBs anticipated spending in 2015. There are several business objectives for these data-driven dollars. B2B organizations are looking to make their business more data focused (52%), improve customer relationships (47%) and change how operations are organized (36%). B2C organizations have similar goals, but improving customer relationships takes the lead (60%).

To align with these goals, organizations anticipate increasing spending on data analytics (58%), data/application integration (44%), and data visualization (43%). Additionally, organizations will make invests enhancing the data center so that it can meet storage capacity, data security, and cloud management needs.

"Data & analytics are the gateway to many technology-dependent business advances," said Brian Glynn, chief revenue officer of IDG Enterprise. "Organizations that collect and analyze the right data to provide business insights will have a competitive advantage and will be able to adopt and integrate more sophisticated security, IoT and cognitive learning solutions, which are trending to be vital as businesses continue to transform their processes."

From Securing Data to Using Data for Security
Security plays a dual role when it comes to data & analytics; protecting data and using data to protect the organization. Thirty-eight percent of organizations are taking additional measures to secure the output of data once it is generated, compared to 44% that believe measures taken to secure data input are adequate. The main security measure for data output is identity and access control, followed by data encryption and data segregation. When dealing with the collection of sensitive data like financial or customer information, 68% of organizations either restrict the collection, or do not collect it at all. When exploring why the collection of sensitive data is restricted, enterprise organizations shared that they do not collect it because of compliance mandates and SMBs stated they have no need to collect.

Organizations are reaping security benefits from data. Almost half (47%) of organizations are able to feed security monitoring activity into analytics solutions to help improve the organization's security posture. An additional 18% are planning to integrate this capability in the next year.

Getting on the Data & Analytics Short List
Data & analytics solution providers have the opportunity to build relationships with select influencers and decision-makers throughout the purchase process. CIOs, CEOs and IT architects are the most influential stakeholders in data-driven initiatives. IT architects often bridge business and IT strategies for their organization, making them a key individual for tech vendors to connect with. As the purchase process continues to the final purchase decision, CIOs and CEOs traditionally take the helm.

When building content marketing resources, data & analytics-focused tech marketers should understand that the criteria for evaluating data-driven solutions vary for enterprise and SMB organizations.

                                                                            
TOP DATA & ANALYTICS VENDOR CRITERIA                                        
                                                                            
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Enterprise Organizations              SMB Organizations                     
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Integration into existing             Ease of use (45%)                     
 infrastructure (51%)                                                       
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Appropriate level of scalability      Integration into existing             
 (38%)                                infrastructure (43%)                  
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Support and services (33%)            Support and services (36%)            
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Digging further into the data & analytics needs of organizations in the coming year, 46% plan to invest in Hadoop based technologies and 41% in NoSQL technologies.

About the IDG Enterprise 2016 Data & Analytics Research
IDG Enterprise's 2016 Data & Analytics Research was conducted among the audiences of six IDG Enterprise brands (CIO, Computerworld, CSO, InfoWorld, ITworld and Network World) representing IT and security decision-makers across multiple industries. The survey was fielded online with the objective of gaining a better understanding of organizations' data-driven initiatives, investments and strategies. Results in this release are based on 724 respondents who reported their organizations are currently implementing, planning or considering big data projects.

View additional information from the 2016 IDG Enterprise Data & Analytics research.

About IDG
IDG connects the world of tech buyers with insights, intent and engagement. IDG is the world's leading media, data and marketing services company that activates and engages the most influential technology buyers. Our premium brands, including CIO®, Computerworld®, PCWorld® and Macworld®, engage the most powerful audience of technology buyers providing essential guidance on the evolving technology landscape. Our global data intelligence platform activates purchasing intent, powering our clients' success. IDG Marketing Services creates custom content with marketing impact across video, mobile, social and digital. We execute complex campaigns that fulfill marketers' global ambitions seamlessly with consistency that delivers results and wins awards. IDG is the #1 tech media company in the world, per comScore.*

*Source: comScore Media Metrix, Desktop Unique Visitors, Worldwide, February 2016

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Contact:
Lynn Holmlund
Marketing Director
IDG Enterprise
lholmlund@idgenterprise.com
office: 508.935.4526
mobile: 508.254.8336