Big Data and its associated analytics garnered the attention of many organizations in 2016.  In 2017, companies will expect even more from those types of initiatives. So what trends can be expected this year when it comes to data and analytics?  Here’s a few:

1. Up, up and away into the cloud

SMBs and large enterprises alike will continue moving out of their own data centers and into the cloud, for both big data and traditional applications. Many of them hope to reduce the storage costs associated with Big Data, and increase their flexibility and manageability with a migration to cloud-based storage solutions.

Expertise is also a factor to consider with big data and analytics.  Even large enterprises can find it difficult to employ the talent required to manage, monitor and secure their data in the cloud. This has compelled many organizations to hire cloud service providers that offer a Big Data processing platform and ancillary services.

2. Spotlights shine on Dark Data

All those boxes of archived paper documents, photos, and assorted “old stuff” locked away in storage will start seeing the light of day as companies continue looking for ways to mine that wealth of information and put it to use in Big Data aggregation. This new appreciation for such information assets can provide an enhanced view of historical performance trends that have proven useful for planning. They also provide supporting evidence for trademark infringement and/or intellectual property violation claims.

3. More locks on the data door

As more organizations realize the value of all the data they’ve been aggregating, it will be important for them to take bolder steps in securing that data. Data access permissions and policies will need to be reviewed and updated to create a secure environment where employees get to use the data they need, but lack the ability to access all of it. These tighter, more stringent access rules will need to be coupled with a strong monitoring solution to detect the unauthorized copying, transferring or retrieval of data by internal users.

4. Analytics now, not later

Executives want to see analytics that give them immediately actionable data. They don’t want to wait for batch analytics reports, which much of big data analytics still is. The pressure will be on IT to deliver actionable analytics results faster, and to focus more Big Data and analytics activities on real-time or near real-time data.

5. Keeping score

Finally, Big Data and analytics will continue to be an exciting and high-growth area of our industry during 2017, but ultimately they must produce positive results for companies. Expect senior executives to hold the feet of their quants and analytics gurus to the fire of the bottom line like never before.

SLPowers has a Business Intelligence and Analytics division, which specializes in developing the kind of actionable reports discussed above. We invite you to hold our feet to the fire.

Categories: Current News and Events, Data Loss Prevention, Data Security