Large Portion of Fortune 500 Companies Are Unprepared for Big Data Growth

As technology grows and adapts, its in-depth integration into nearly every industry continues to change the needs of companies in terms of big data management and analysis.

As technology grows and adapts, its in-depth integration into nearly every industry continues to change the needs of companies in terms of big data management and analysis. However, many enterprises may not be putting the necessary efforts into this aspect of their operations, which could lead to major issues in a few years.

Fortune 500 companies likely to be hit hard
Gartner, an IT research and advisory company, recently released a report that analyzed the current and future needs surrounding enterprise information management. Based on the findings, the researchers predicted that roughly one-third of Fortune 500 organizations will encounter major issues with their business intelligence by 2017. Andrew White, Gartner’s research vice president, explained in a release that many companies may be disorganized or unwilling to focus their efforts on big data management, particularly because they may not “effectively value, govern and trust their enterprise data.”

Making efforts now can improve business over time
White pointed out that companies will need to manage and use their data effectively to reap the most benefits. Enterprise information management and other data analysis tools will be necessary to not only help businesses sort through the information, but also determine the best possible uses for that information to give a company insights that will boost growth and productivity.

“With effective information governance, business users will understand the impact of poor quality data on the outcome of desired business processes,” White said in the release. “This understanding leads to a desire, on behalf of the end user, to assure or ‘steward’ the data so that it supports their day-to-day business activities.”

Data analysis software will prove useful
Having the right tools to analyze big data is of utmost importance, and these days there are many different options to choose from. TechTarget suggested investing in more than one BI solution to handle the various sectors of data being collected. Companies that have already invested in SQL business intelligence software need not worry, as the source pointed out that SQL interfaces can still play a functional role in data management going forward. By choosing multiple analysis software options, companies can fine-tune their business analytics for each sector to get the best possible results.

“What we’re saying is, ‘Give the things that belong to a certain task a certain database,'” Pramod Sadalage, a consultant for a Chicago-based software development company, told Tech Target. “If you have, for example, a [product] catalog, put it in a database that is well-suited for that – then searches go faster.”