Investment in big data increasing as technology improves

Organizations across practically all sectors have come to realize the immense power of the data analytics movement. Public institutions can devise better ways to deliver valuable services to taxpayers. Non-profit organizations can do more to help the world around them. For-profit companies can attract more consumers and make more money. All of the above groups have discovered that by doing more to gather and analyze large volumes of information, they can make dramatic improvements to the way they do business.

With innovation in technology comes even more confidence in the power of the analytics movement. The IT world is making steady improvements every day to upgrade the world's potential with big data. Changing tech circumstances have made it easier for companies to gather large clusters of information, work to ensure a higher level of data quality and ultimately work more efficiently to uncover important truths.

As this trend has progressed, we've seen several positive side effects in the analytics movement.

More companies buying in
As the data movement has become more popular, more companies have made the decision to invest in data-driven technologies to improve their operations. According to The Economic Times, a healthy majority of organizations have now bought in. The news source cited recent research from Gartner, which found that 64 percent of firms either have already invested in the technology or plan to do so before the end of 2013.

"The hype around big data continues to drive increased investment and attention, but there is real substance behind the hype," Gartner research director Lisa Kart told The Economic Times.

The newspaper explained that businesses have found ways to generate real value from these new technologies. They're doing more to survey their customers, collect opinions and use this information to make progress.

Money keeps flowing
As more companies have made the decision to embrace big data, the economy has felt the effects in a big way. According to eWeek, the global market for big data is rapidly growing - the news source cited a recent survey from Markets and Markets, which revealed that the total value of big data should grow from $14.87 billion currently to $46.34 billion by 2018, a 26 percent rate compounded annually.

eWeek explained that companies are looking to leverage innovative new hardware and software into more sophisticated solutions that will help them gain competitive advantages over their rivals. By paying more attention to the potential inherent in business intelligence, companies can find better ways to predict the future, which will give them an edge financially.

IT departments expanding
Another side effect of this growing pro-data movement is that companies are beginning to expand their influence of their information technology departments. Thanks to the rise of analytics, businesses realize that IT affects far more than just computers - its work bleeds into finance, marketing, HR, law and more.

Companies are making significant investments in expanding their IT offices because in turn, this initiative should improve the overall health of their organizations. According to Business Standard, this trend is apparent worldwide.

"Big data is very high on the agenda of enterprises. It is one of the first things our clients are asking for," said Vishnu Bhat, vice president of Infosys. "We feel big data is relevant to every enterprise. I think the relevance of big data is so imminent that it is quite imperative."

Technology has had a growing role in the business world for generations, and the advent of big data analytics is merely the next step in that progression. By doing more with data, public and private organizations alike have improved by leaps and bounds.