62 Percent

Almost two-thirds—62 percent of—respondents to Microsoft’s big data survey said they currently store at least 100 terabytes of data.

Nearly one-third, or 32 percent, of respondents said they expect the amount of data they store to double in the next two to three years.

Forty-nine percent rated managing data growth as extremely challenging when managing their companies’ business intelligence (BI), while 41 percent rated integrating disparate BI tools as extremely challenging, and 40 percent rated the need for tools to analyze data and glean insights as extremely challenging.

Survey respondents ranked customer care, sales, finance and marketing as the top areas driving demand for big data insights.

Nearly nine out of 10 (89 percent) survey respondents said they already have a dedicated budget for a big data solution.

Fifty-one percent of companies surveyed said they are in the middle stages of planning a big data solution, whereas 13 percent said they have fully deployed their solution.

Nearly three-quarters (72 percent) of respondents said they have begun the planning process, but have not yet tested or deployed a solution.

Of the 72 percent of respondents in the planning process, more than three-quarters (76 percent) of those said they plan to have their solution implemented in less than a year.

Sixty-two percent of respondents to the survey said developing near-real-time predictive analytics or data mining capabilities during the next 24 months is extremely important.

Fifty-eight percent of respondents rated expanding data storage infrastructure and resources as extremely important.

Fifty-three percent of respondents rated increased amounts of unstructured data to analyze as extremely important.