Big Data – as data scientist Clive Humby called it, the new oil – has dawned and has already made significant contributions in businesses across industries. And digital marketing is of no exception.
The changing customer behavior and increasing online channels are making it more imperative for businesses to invest in some form of Big Data technologies. While relatively new and expensive for some, these tools can help analyze and provide the businesses with valuable insights from structured and unstructured data which otherwise cannot be processed by their traditional databases and analytics.
That said, regardless of your level of understanding of Big Data or the number of advanced tools you’re currently utilizing to implement it in your business, knowing its ongoing impact is crucial to understand the additional capabilities it can deliver and the forthcoming technologies that will further shape decision-making process of companies over the long haul.
Read on as we discuss the latest trends and statistics in big data that businesses and digital marketers alike should keep a keen eye to in 2019.
1. More Companies Use Cloud to Act on Big Data
As Big Data fast becoming a “must-have” in the business world, more and more companies are looking into cloud computing to make their data management and analysis significantly faster and more efficient.
According to the latest data from Ovum, about 45% of companies reported running at least some Big Data workloads in the cloud. This is in line with other statistics which state that by 2020, at least one-third of all data will exist in or pass through the cloud.
The benefits of using cloud computing for big data is hard to overestimate; companies will be able to establish big data infrastructure in a fast and scalable way while cutting costs at the same time since they don’t have to invest and maintain in-house big data centers.
Such benefits are backed by a Deloitte study, which states that the key influential reasons companies move to a cloud are faster payback times (30%) and improved agility (29%).
Furthermore, an increasing number of cloud database providers are planning to apply machine learning to make their service offerings autonomous. The frontrunner on this initiative is the “self-driving, self-securing, and self-repairing” cloud database of Oracle, which promises companies a big data infrastructure that has end-to-end automation for provisioning, security, updates, availability, and performance.
2. Strong Need For Companies to Manage Unstructured Data
Different companies deal with different sets of data, but for many, much of these data assets come in unstructured form. In fact, a recent survey has found that 95% of companies face some kind of need to manage unstructured data.
In marketing organizations, unstructured data can consist of text, including survey responses, transcripts of sales conversations, and social media posts. Other types also include images, audio files, and video files – all of which cannot be managed and analyzed through conventional data models.
This increased need is most likely to lead to increased spending for Big Data analytics for years to come. This trend has been evident for the past 12 months, wherein the percentage of companies using descriptive and predictive analytics grew to 60% from 40%, and content analytics usage increased to 54% from 43%. The outpouring investments in these technologies willalso be the reason why the Big Data industry will reach an estimated value of $77 billion by 2023, according to Statista
3. Increasing Importance of Streaming Analytics
As discussed in our previous infographic about Big Data, one of the three primary sources for Big Data is streaming data – those that come from the web of connected devices and reaches the organization’s IT systems in real-time. In order to manage this Big Data channel, companies need to have a Streaming Analytics in place.
Streaming analytics are cloud-based platforms that capture real-time data across the organization’s devices and network and then process that information in real-time, allowing the company to act on mission-critical tasks quickly and efficiently.
From predictive maintenance to cybersecurity and operations optimization, there is a more potential real-world use case for streaming analytics aside from real-time business intelligence reporting. More and more vendors are also advancing their streaming analytics capabilities, which will further make it a Big Data must-have in 2019 and years to come.
4. Data Warehouse Optimization Remains the Most Important Big Data Use Case
Optimizing data warehouses has always been perceived as a complex and expensive undertaking, yet extremely crucial in ensuring an efficient decision-making process in the business. However, with the availability of various Big Data analytics, companies can now rest easy knowing that they can take several approaches to optimize their data warehouses while minimizing cost and improving scalability.
This is especially true data-heavy sector, such as Advertising and Government, and in business function such as Operations. According to 2018 Big Data Analytics Market Report, around 20% of companies see Data Warehouse Optimization as a Critical use case of Big Data, while more than 60% see it as Very Important in their enterprise.
5. More Companies To See Big Data as Biggest Disruptor in Sales and Marketing
In 2018 Mckinsey Analytics survey, 50% of companies reported that analytics and Big Data have fundamentally changed business practices in their sales and marketing functions.
Regardless of the size and nature of the business, it cannot be denied that Big Data has already changed Sales and Marketing. It’s very rare to see marketers that don’t utilize some form of cloud analytics to measure the engagement and predict market trends nowadays.
Data has now become essential for accurate audience targeting and personalized marketing and is also the key to understanding the buyer’s intent. All in all, by necessity, companies that have to adapt their marketing and sales strategy around Big Data in order to survive and remain competitive in today’s business world.
Conclusion
While intuition and experience remain a critical factor in making business and marketing decisions, the fast advancements in Big Data analytics are making it more possible for companies to make data-driven decisions on or even ahead of time.
Jomer B. Gregorio is a well-rounded expert when it comes digital marketing. Jomer is also known as a semantic SEO evangelist and practitioner. Check out our Digital Marketing Services today and let us help you in achieving positive and profitable results for your business.