Data Storage: EMC and Big Data: 12 Key Findings From the Data Science Study

EMC's global survey of the data science community has shown that only one-third of the companies polled are making effective use of data. The recently announced EMC Data Science Study covers the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, India and China, and it reveals and quantifies a rampant scarcity across the globe of the prerequisite skills necessary for a company to capitalize on the opportunities found at the intersection of Big Data and data analytics, EMC officials said. Indeed, only one-third of companies are able to effectively use new data to assist their business decision-making, gain competitive advantage, drive productivity growth, yield innovation and reveal customer insights, EMC said in a press release on the survey. The survey revealed that the explosion of digital data created by mobile sensors, social media, surveillance, medical imaging, smart grids and the like-combined with new tools for analyzing it all-has created a corresponding explosion in the opportunity to generate value and insights from the data. As such, the business demand for data scientists has quickly outpaced the supply of talent, EMC said. The EMC Data Science Study respondents included nearly 500 members of the data science community globally including data scientists and professionals from related disciplines such as data analysts, data specialists, business intelligence analysts, information analysts and data engineers globally, all of whom have IT decision-making authority. Here are 12 key takeaways from the survey. For a related article click here.