Confidence in big data initiatives is on the rise

Business leaders may have been skeptical a few years ago about the potential for the big data movement to reform their operations, but they're now beginning to come around. Confidence in the present and future of analytics has never been higher, and the technology has gained a foothold in a variety of industries.

According to CIO, companies are now extremely confident in the power of big data, but they've still yet to fully accomplish their goals for implementing it. There's still plenty of work to do.

The news source cited the results of a study from nonprofit IT organization CompTIA to support its claims. In its second annual Big Data Insights and Opportunities study, CompTIA found that 78 percent of organizations feel more positive about big data as a business initiative than they did a year ago. Moreover, 42 percent now say they are engaged in big data initiatives already.

"Year over year, we confirmed that there is more awareness and familiarity with big data," Tim Herbert, vice president of research and market intelligence at CompTIA, told CIO. "It has helped to drive more comfort with data initiatives among companies."

There's still progress to be made with regard to how companies use big data findings. According to CompTIA, 8 of every 10 executives agree that "If we could harness all our data, we'd be a much stronger company," and 75 percent say that data is among their firm's greatest assets.

"Data has always been important in the business world, but the big data trend has elevated its importance, pushing companies to be smarter in how they manage and use data," Herbert said.

Another significant step in the big data movement should be progress toward better technology. By increasing their attention to storage and data quality, companies can better perform analyses that will improve their operations.