When it comes to data management, a full 96 percent of IT organizations are now operating at or over capacity, with not much relief in sight, at a time when more organizations than ever are evaluating data monetization opportunities.
A survey of 400 data professionals in the U.S. conducted by Ascend.io, a provider of data engineering tools, finds (93 percent) of respondents anticipate the number of data pipelines in their organization will increase between now and the end of the year, with more than half (56 percent) projecting the number of data pipelines to increase by more than 50 percent in their organizations.
Three quarters of respondents (79 percent) indicated that their infrastructure and systems are not the primary bottleneck, which from a managed service provider (MSP) perspective suggests the issue lies with the capacity of the internal IT team. Just under three quarters (74 percent) also noted their need for platforms to manage data is growing faster than the size of the IT team, with the most common bottlenecks cited as being maintenance of existing and legacy data systems (39 percent), data system setup and prototyping (30 percent), and the need to ask for access to data or systems (26 percent).
More than half of respondents (53 percent) said they plan to buy new products or tools, or implement automation technologies to address their data management issues, followed by increasing bandwidth either by hiring more staff (47 percent) and retiring legacy technologies, or moving them to another platform (30 percent).
Growing appreciation for the value of data
Not too long ago most organizations viewed data as burden to be borne. Now, not only are organizations managing data as an asset, there are more organizations than ever exploring ways to monetize their data. Snowflake, for example, this week has added a marketplace specifically created to enable organization to monetize data.
Savvy MSPs are also now having conversations with clients about how to convert mountains of data into a potential new treasure trove of revenue. That shift is driving an unprecedented level of convergence across data management, engineering, protection and security processes within organizations.
Most of those organizations, however, lack the skills required to successfully manage data at scale. MSPs that can unify those processes on behalf of their customers are worth their weight in revenue. No one can monetize something they can’t manage or control. Suddenly, the cost of engaging an MSP is being evaluated using a different formula. Instead of comparing the cost of an MSP against the cost of similar services provided by an internal IT team, the MSP is being judged on how quickly and consistently they enable an organization to monetize data.
Strong chances for data monetization
Data-as-a-service is hardly a new idea. Professionals service firms have been selling data for decades. The difference now is more organizations that don’t sell data as part of their primary business, are discovering a new way to supplement their revenues. The challenge is finding a way to enable more of them to take advantage of that opportunity in a way that doesn’t distract them from the primary business mission that put them in a unique position to collect that data in the first place.
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