Majority of enterprises lack mature data strategy

A new study reveals that 70 percent of enterprises lack a mature data strategy. The study from cloud migration and managed services company 2nd Watch finds only 26 percent have any data strategy at all.

Most organizations recognize the importance of comprehensive data management though with 60 percent of respondents claiming to have an enterprise-wide data catalog.

When it comes to the challenges faced in analyzing and using data only 42 percent of respondents say they have the analytics expertise in-house to meet their business needs, and nearly four out of 10 respondents (38 percent) say that self-service analytics requires IT support, impeding innovation and stretching already thin IT resources.

Only 39 percent of respondents say all their data is available for reporting and analytics. On a more positive note 47 percent say they’re using best-of-breed integration tools with bundled data quality, governance and self-service provisioning. The bad news is that 49 percent are using tools included with their cloud data platform, and many of these tools lack the mature cataloging, data quality, governance and privacy services that are essential to most large organizations.

Although legacy systems are impeding progress, 57 percent of respondents say they are using a cloud data warehouse, and 64 percent have their data in the cloud. 52 percent have data science/machine learning projects in production, and 42 percent are testing some use cases. Of those using the cloud 41 percent say it has allowed them to be more agile, and 44 percent say their cloud infrastructure and costs are under control.

"The survey findings are consistent with what we're hearing from clients, which is they'd like to be more data-driven but resources, skills and tools stand in their way," says Michael Elliott, executive director -- marketing, at 2nd Watch. "2nd Watch's approach includes the critical data strategy as well as the architecture to ingest, integrate, manage and provision the data for all analytics. This strategy enables organizations to successfully migrate to the cloud and continue to innovate and grow with agility and cost governance."

You can find out more on the 2nd Watch site.

Image credit: realinemedia/depositphotos.com