Shortcomings in managing/using data take their toll on businesses. Learn where the opportunities are for managing that data.

1. Big Data
Insights & Opportunities

2. About this Research
Enclosed is a sampling of key findings from CompTIA’s recently
published Big Data Insights and Opportunities study.
This research seeks to establish a foundation of knowledge and understanding for big data and the related
topics. The study focuses on:
• Establishing a baseline for where businesses are in data capture, storage, management and analysis
• Identifying key end user needs and challenges associated with data
• Gauging familiarity and incidence rates for big data initiatives
• Assessing IT channel partner perceptions of big data opportunities
This research was conducted in two parts:
• Quantitative survey of 500 IT and business executives (aka end users)
• Quantitative survey of 435 IT firms (aka IT channel)
Data collection occurred during July 2012.
The full report is available at no charge to CompTIA members. They can access the report by logging into the
member area of CompTIA.org, or, by contacting us at research@comptia.org.

3. Data Already Critically Important to
Businesses; Likely to Further Intensify
Importance Today Anticipated Importance in 2014
34% Very
Very
Important 41% Important
53% Important
46% Important
12% 11%
NET Neutral NET NET Neutral NET
Unimportant Important Unimportant Important
Source: CompTIA’s Big Data Insights & Opportunities study
Base: 500 U.S. business and IT executives (aka end users)

4. Shortcomings in Managing/Using Data
Take Their Toll on Businesses
Wasted time that could be spent
in other areas of the business
50%
Inefficient or slow decision-making / Lack of agility 43%
Internal confusion over priorities 31%
Reduced margins due to operational inefficiencies 30%
Inability to effectively assess staff performance 27%
Inability to reach new customer segments 25%
Lost sales 24%
Slow to market with new products 15%
Source: CompTIA’s Big Data Insights & Opportunities study
Base: 500 U.S. business and IT executives (aka end users)

5. Despite Growing Media Coverage, Many Executives
Unfamiliar with the Concept of Big Data
Familiarity with the Profile of Big Data Familiarity
Concept of Big Data
51% Familiarity among large companies
(vs. 27% for small)
Familiar
37%
44% Familiarity among IT executives
(vs. 26% for business executives)
44% Familiarity among those using
advanced BI tools (vs. 26% for
63% those who are not)
Unfamiliar
Source: CompTIA’s Big Data Insights & Opportunities study
Base: 500 U.S. business and IT executives (aka end users)

6. 1 in 5 Businesses Report Engaging in
Some Type of Big Data Initiative*
*Based on their interpretation of Big Data
Incidence of Engaging in Some Profile of Those Reporting
Type of Big Data Initiative Some Type of Big Data Initiative
Yes
19% 28% of large companies report a big
data initiative (vs. 11% for small)
28% of data savvy companies report a
big data initiative (vs. 13% for those
that are not data savvy)
45% 36%
Equal numbers of Business and IT
No, an No, but Executives report a big data initiative.
d no moving
plans in that
direction Source: CompTIA’s Big Data Insights & Opportunities study
Base: 500 U.S. business and IT executives (aka end users)

7. Businesses Seek Improvement in
Many Areas of Data Analytics
Doing, But Want to No
Currently Want to Start Plans/N
Data Analytics or Data Capability Type Doing Well Improve Doing A
Remote or mobile access to corporate data 24% 40% 24% 12%
Website traffic patterns 20% 41% 21% 18%
Search capabilities across organization's many data sources 17% 40% 26% 16%
Real-time analysis of incoming data 17% 46% 23% 14%
Email marketing campaign effectiveness 15% 46% 18% 21%
Metrics and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) 15% 43% 22% 20%
Customer profiling and segmentation analysis 14% 46% 22% 18%
Visualization capabilities (e.g. dashboards) 13% 41% 28% 17%
Predictive analytics to forecast sales and other trends 13% 45% 23% 20%
Social media monitoring 12% 41% 20% 27%
Pattern recognition 10% 31% 28% 30%
Relationship analysis (e.g. X is highly correlated with Y) 9% 40% 27% 24%
Source: CompTIA’s Big Data Insights & Opportunities study
Base: 500 U.S. business and IT executives (aka end users)

8. IT Firms Begin to Build Out Their Big Data Offerings
Currently offering to customers
Plan to begin offering over next 12 months
Big Data Application Deployment 31%
or Integration services 12%
28%
Big Data Consulting or Advisory services
14%
Big Data Analytics (e.g. business 27%
intelligence, predictive analytics) 9%
Big Data Collection (e.g. facilitating the 26%
efficient collection of streams of data) 11%
Big Data Storage and Management 25%
Applications (e.g. Hadoop) 12%
Source: CompTIA’s Big Data Insights & Opportunities study
Base: 435 U.S. IT companies

9. Big Data’s Long-term Outlook Mostly
Promising, but Some IT Firms See Many Unknowns
Big Data Hyped at Appropriate Level Big Data Currently Over-Hyped
30% 39%
24%
7%
Hyped at the Hyped at the Over-hyped; Over-hyped;
appropriate level; appropriate level; long-term long-term
long-term outlook long-term outlook outlook still outlook very
still unknown very promising unknown promising
Source: CompTIA’s Big Data Insights & Opportunities study
Base: 400 U.S. IT firms

10. Want to know more?
As the voice of the IT industry, CompTIA has
hundreds of tools, market intelligence reports and
comptia.org
training programs to help IT channel
organizations grow their business through
education, certification, advocacy and
philanthropy.
Check it out at www.comptia.org.