‘Unveiling Data Challenges Afflicting Businesses Around The World’ – New study revealed by Dell. Dell Technologies unveiled the findings of a global study conducted by Forrester Consulting titled, “Unveiling Data Challenges Aflicting Businesses Around The World”. The study shows that data has become a valuable asset for most businesses, yet they are overwhelmed with its sheer magnitude, velocity, and variety.
The findings are based on a survey of 4,036 data decision-makers from 45 countries, including the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia. They are based on the biennial Dell Technologies Digital Transformation Index study, which evaluates the digital maturity of businesses around the world. The top obstacle to transformation in the 2020 DT Index was “data overload/inability to derive insights from data,” up from 12th position in 2016.
Dell Technologies commissioned Forrester Consulting to conduct the research in order to better understand why and how data is becoming one of the most significant impediments to change.
These findings were presented at the Dell Technologies Forum Middle East 2021, the company’s flagship event that brings together top decision-makers and industry think tanks to examine emerging trends, challenges, and new development possibilities in the region’s dynamic technology sector.
The report outlines a number of data paradoxes that are already harming organisations, including:
Data is the lifeblood of their firm, according to three-quarters of respondents (75%) who claim their business is data-driven. However, just 20% of respondents say they approach data as capital and prioritise its utilisation across the organisation.
Forrester Consulting developed an objective measure of a company’s data readiness to provide some clarity.
According to the findings, 86 percent of organisations in the UAE and Saudi Arabia have not advanced their data technology and processes, as well as their data culture and capabilities. Only 14% of firms are classified as Data Champions, meaning they are actively involved in both technology and process (as well as culture and skills).
According to the study, 70% of respondents in the UAE and Saudi Arabia say they collect data quicker than they can evaluate and use it, yet 71% say they always need more data than their existing skills give. This could be because:
• Despite the acknowledged benefits of processing data at the edge – where the data is generated – 60% of respondents keep a significant amount of their data in data centres they own or operate.
• A scalability-impaired IT strategy: Instead of consolidating what they already have, 50% are adding more data silos.
As a result, the explosion of data makes it difficult to meet business requirements, with 64% of respondents claiming that their teams are already overwhelmed by the data they have.
“In a digital economy, data is one of the most valuable business assets, yet today, it stands to be a significant barrier to growth. Navigating this modern-day paradox, and turning vast amounts of data into actionable outcomes can seem daunting especially when on a path to digital transformation. At Dell Technologies, we empower regional organizations to tackle these concerns by offering tailored end-to-end infrastructure solutions that not only support a data-driven work culture that is capable of predicting the future but is also equipped to harness data to achieve better business results, faster,” said Mohammed Amin, Sr. Vice President – MERAT, Dell Technologies.
While economies suffered as a result of the pandemic, the on-demand industry grew, sparking a new generation of data-first, data-anywhere enterprises. However, firms who have shifted the majority of their apps and infrastructure to an as-a-service model are still in the minority. According to the survey, an on-demand approach would assist 86 percent of firms in the UAE and Saudi Arabia that are currently dealing with one or more of the following challenges to better acquire, analyse, and exploit data.
Despite the fact that many firms are failing to implement effective data management methods, many have goals to make the future a better place: In the UAE and Saudi Arabia, 67 percent plan to employ machine learning to automate the detection of anomalous data, 54 percent want to migrate to a data-as-a-service model, and 55 percent want to rethink how they handle and use data by digging deeper into the performance stack.
The following are three ways that firms might turn their data burden into a data advantage:
1. Update their IT infrastructure to meet data at the edge, where it resides. By maintaining a consistent multi-cloud operating paradigm, businesses can put their infrastructure and applications closer to where data needs to be captured, analysed, and acted on–while avoiding data sprawl.
2. Improve data pipelines so that data can flow freely and safely while being supplemented by AI and machine learning.
3. Create software to provide customers with the tailored, integrated experiences they desire.
Data management is critical to the success of any business. As a result, as application workloads and data volumes grow dramatically in the next years, a solution should deliver the global scalability that organisations want.
