Complex environments mean enterprises can't use a third of their data effectively

New research from hybrid data company Cloudera reveals that organizations currently estimate they are not using 33 percent of their data effectively.

The survey 850 IT decision makers (ITDMs) across the EMEA region shows 72 percent of respondents agree that having data sitting across different cloud and on-premises environments makes it complex to extract value from all the data in their organization.

Despite this 68 percent)currently store data in a hybrid environment, meaning they utilize both on-premises/private cloud and the public cloud. Additionally, 72 percent of respondents’ organizations currently have a multi-cloud model and are working with two or more hyperscalers.

The study also shows that 92 percent plan to migrate more data to the cloud over the next three years, citing improved data accessibility (48 percent), optimized data storage and backup (44 percent) and reduced costs (38 percent) as the driving forces.

On the other hand 76 percent plan to repatriate some data back to on-premises environments in the next three years. Data and compliance concerns (55 percent), cloud lock-in fears (54 percent) and non-compliance related cybersecurity concerns (52 percent) are given as the main reasons for organizations not moving more of their data to the cloud.

"At a time when most enterprises are reticent to go all-in on the cloud for cost, control or governance reasons, and at the same time they are looking for benefits from Artificial Intelligence, they need to stay ahead of the curve by using a modern data architectures," says Romain Picard, senior vice president EMEA at Cloudera. "This approach enables all of their data to be 'in play' to deliver benefits to the organization while maintaining needed governance and security."

To extract more value from their data, enterprises are increasingly embracing data analytics. IT departments (68 percent) have the greatest need for analytics tooling, followed by finance (51 percent), sales (49 percent), marketing (49 percent) operations (44 percent) and HR (32 percent). However, 69 percent of respondents believe their organization has too many data analytics tools and are concerned about sprawl, while less than half (45 percent) are fully confident that they know how many data analytics tools they have deployed across their organization.

"Organizations need the capability to securely extract value from their data, regardless of where it resides. But with the emergence of modern data architectures, organizations can drive more value from their data and optimize their cloud costs at the same time. Whilst different departments want to harness the power of data analytics to gain a competitive edge, deploying multiple point solutions can add layers of complexity and silo insight," adds Picard. "At a time when all organizations today want to move faster, they need to stay ahead of the data curve. Those that are capable of harnessing their data in a rapid, cost-effective manner -- no matter where it is located -- will find they have a significant competitive advantage."

The results of the study will be published today at the Evolve London data conference.

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