45% of IT Leaders Planning to Invest in Analytics for Unstructured Data

SAN JOSE, Calif. — While the majority of companies are planning to migrate unstructured data to the cloud, visibility is a chief concern as 45% of IT leaders are set to spend on data analytics software, according to a recent report.

The “State of Unstructured Data Management Report” examines “the challenges and opportunities” with unstructured data for enterprises.

The report was released this week by San Jose, California-based Komprise, the maker of a data-management-as-a-service (DMaaS) platform.

A survey of IT leaders tied to the report shows the majority of enterprises are managing more than 1PB of unstructured data and spending over 30% of their budgets on data storage and protection — overhead costs that are “showing no signs of slowing down.”

The unstructured data — application data, user documents, video and images, research files — represent “untapped insights for future business value,” according to Komprise. 

The report shows that IT leaders realize migrating unstructured data to the cloud can “help cut costs and enable data monetization.”

Post-migration, however, IT leaders need analytics to “help devise a cloud data management strategy” for better planning, cost savings, and support for cloud-based data lake and AI projects, the report indicates.

Report Findings

Unstructured Data is Growing as are its Costs

• 65.5% of organizations spend more than 30% of their IT budgets on data storage and management
• Most (62.5%) will spend more on storage in 2021 versus 2020

Getting More Data to the Cloud is a Key Priority

• 50% of enterprises have data stored in a mix of on-premises and cloud-based storage
• Top priorities for cloud data management include: migrating data to the cloud (56%), cutting storage and data costs (46%), and governance and security of data in the cloud (41%)

IT Leaders Want Visibility First Before Investing in More Storage

• Investing in analytics tools was the highest priority (45%) over buying more cloud or on-premises storage or modernizing backups
• One-third of enterprises acknowledge that over 50% of data is cold, while 20% don’t know, suggesting a need to right-place data through its life cycle

Unstructured Data Management Goals and Challenges

• 44.9% wish to avoid rising costs
• 44.5% want better visibility for planning
• 42% are interested in tagging data for future use and enabling data lakes

“The survey shows that enterprises want analytics and systematic data management to make the best decisions on cloud migrations and archiving,” said Krishna Subramanian, president and COO, Komprise. 

“The end goal is to cut storage costs and create new value from unstructured data over time.”

Report Methodology

The “State of Unstructured Data Management Report” is based on a survey of 300 storage IT decision makers at companies with over 1,000 employees in the U.S. and U.K.

The survey was conducted in June 2021 by a third-party firm on behalf of Komprise.