Businesses across Europe struggle to grasp big data concepts - IDC expert analysis
In a revealing survey conducted by IDC in 2013, it was found that a significant number of European businesses are missing out on the benefits of big data. The survey, which polled 1603 European businesses, showed that 44% of them plan to address the fast growth of unstructured data by expanding storage capacity instead of adopting 'big data' solutions.
Donna Taylor, Research Director at IDC, explained that this trend is due to a lack of understanding of big data, which is harming European businesses. She noted that many respondents mistakenly believe 'big data' refers to increased storage capacity.
Taylor also pointed out that the demand for greater storage capacity is driving the adoption of solid-state disk drives (SSDs). She explained that the shift towards SSDs can affect power and cooling footprint issues in data centers, as well as displace a large number of disks in the data center with small amounts of SSDs.
However, Taylor stressed that 'big data' systems are considered a luxury, not a necessity, for most European businesses due to tight IT budgets. She lamented that despite the growing demand for 'big data', budget cuts are hindering its value, particularly in Europe.
Taylor further noted that the perception of 'big data' as a means to generate revenue from existing data is growing. She warned that the consequences of this lack of understanding about big data are significant challenges in leveraging big data for competitive advantage.
This lack of understanding leads to difficulties in effectively adopting big data technologies, missed opportunities for innovation and data-driven decision making, and ultimately hampers the ability of European businesses to stay competitive in a global market increasingly driven by data analytics.
Taylor also noted that the shift towards SSDs is driving down the cost of SSDs, making them more accessible to businesses. She concluded that data center operators are looking to expand storage capacity, which is shifting from tape to disk to SSDs.
In summary, the lack of understanding about big data among European businesses in 2013, as per IDC and Donna Taylor, led to underinvestment, strategic missteps, and competitive disadvantages in the rapidly evolving data-centric economic landscape. If more specific details are desired, reviewing IDC's 2013 reports or related publications by Donna Taylor would be necessary.
Data-and-cloud-computing technologies, such as big data solutions, are not being adequately utilized by a large portion of European businesses, with many mistakenly believing that increased storage capacity is the essential aspect (big data). This misconception hurts European businesses by hindering their ability to stay competitive in the rapidly growing data-centric market.
