Data Fragmentation a Major Barrier
- By CDOTrends editors
- January 26, 2022
Recent findings from Informatica’s second annual global CDO study with IDC “Driving Business Value from Data in the Face of Fragmentation and Complexity” point to a disturbing trend: Data fragmentation.
“The survey shows organizations with higher data maturity are better at using cloud and AI to address the primary challenge of fragmentation and complexity and generate higher levels of business value with their data. Organizations seeking to become digital leaders should place a strong focus on data leadership,” said Stewart Bond, IDC research director.
This puts pressure on chief data officers, who already have a lot on their plate and continue to see their job scope broadening.
“The changemakers of tomorrow in digital transformation will have to be move beyond just data integration to data intelligence, but 37% of data leaders are spending most of their time grappling with data complexity as opposed to driving true transformation with data,” said Jitesh Ghai, Informatica’s chief product officer, Informatica.
“This year’s annual CDO study reveals that data fragmentation will be the biggest barrier facing data leaders next year and the key characteristics of those leading data-led transformations and achieving business value versus those that are still struggling to make sense of all of their data.”
Three major themes emerged from the 2021 Global CDO study. They include:
- Nearly 80% of organizations surveyed store more than half of their data in hybrid and multi-cloud infrastructures.
- 79% of organizations use more than 100 data sources, with 30% using more than 1000 sources.
- 37% of data leaders are barely keeping the lights on when it comes to data management as opposed to driving strategy or innovation with data
But this fragmentation, with data spread across multiple sources and many clouds, is creating a significant concern. Simply put, it makes it more difficult to discover, manage and derive intelligence from their data.
Highlighting the chasm in delivering business value between data leaders and laggards, the study found that enterprises with a high level of data maturity generate 250% more business value than those only beginning their data-led transformations, where most of the time in data management is spent keeping the lights on.
The study also discussed the impact of AI. It showed that data mature organizations were three times better at operationalizing AI to automate data management activities than their less mature peers. Data leaders were also seen to be leveraging AI-driven insights and process optimization to improve efficiency and the availability and use of data to users within the business.
Yet, only 31% of organizations provide AI-powered self-service access to all the data needed by different teams. Meanwhile, APAC companies are leading the way, with 37% automating data management across the business.
Image credit: iStockphoto/alptraum