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Big Data Infographic

CompTIA research points out that only 4 in 10 executives report having a basic level of familiarity with and understanding of Big Data.

Check out our infographic to learn about what Big Data is, what it can do and how a lack of ability to contend with it is affecting companies.

CompTIA members can read the full report here.


Big Data

Harnessing the Potential of Big Data


While already important, organizations of all types expect data to become even more critical to the success of their business. And yet, many companies acknowledge they need to do a much better job leveraging the data at their disposal. Two-thirds of executives in the recent CompTIA Big Data Insights and Opportunities study agree or strongly agree with the statement “If we could harness all of our data, we would be a much stronger business.” Because data growth shows no signs of slowing, the trend will only intensify.

The consequences of lagging behind in a data-driven world may become more pronounced. The participants in the CompTIA study cited lower productivity, lack of business agility, internal confusion over priorities and reduced margins due to operational inefficiencies as the top negative consequences of poor execution in managing and analyzing data.

Similar to any emerging technology category, sizing the Big Data market presents a number of challenges (for a definition of Big Data, see here). While there are quite a few pure-play Big Data firms and a growing ecosystem of Big Data applications and tools, the challenge comes in separating the ‘Big Data’ component from the host of supporting and related technologies such as storage, data management or analytics.

Furthermore, the concept of Big Data remains largely a mystery to many. Nearly 4 in 10 executives report having a basic level of familiarity and understanding with Big Data. Familiarity rates are highest within large companies, which makes sense given the higher likelihood of working with data at the Big Data threshold.

Not every business will need a Big Data strategy. But, just about every business will need a mechanism to manage, process and make sense of its structured and unstructured data. When asked about areas for improvement, respondents in the CompTIA study mentioned real-time analysis of incoming data, email marketing campaign effectiveness assessments, customer profiling and predictive analytics and forecasting at the highest rates.

CompTIA’s Big Data Insights and Opportunities study was developed from a survey of 500 IT and business executives at end-user firms and 435 executives at IT firms in the U.S. The data was collected during July 2012. The full report is available at no cost to CompTIA members. Visit CompTIA.org or contact research@comptia.org for details.


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