Australian CIOs increasing big data budgets in 2017: Telsyte

Australian enterprises are increasing their investment in big data in 2017, according to new research from analyst firm Telsyte.

Of the 269 ICT decision makers who participated in the Telsyte Australian Big Data & Analytics Market Study 2017, 83 percent said they were planning to invest more on hardware, software, and services to boost their big data analytics capability in 2017.

Intention to use big data analytics were found to be high across a range of applications including: financial modelling; customer interaction; security and fraud detection; retail sales and ecommerce; and the Internet of Things (IoT) and machine-to-machine infrastructure.

Telsyte claims big data and analytics are now "in the same league" as CRM and marketing automation for share of software budget, coinciding with growing demand for high volume data processing and real-time intelligence.

The main benefits CIOs are looking to derive from big data and analytics are improved productivity, decision making, and product and service development, which Telsyte claims is the number one business priority for Australian ICT decision-makers.

While more than half of Australian CIOs expect a five or more fold increase in the number of IoT devices in their enterprise within the next five years, the lack of a big data strategy was found to be a hindrance to IoT adoption in one in four enterprises.

"Just collecting and processing data is half the story. Australian business leaders must use real-time analytics to gain business value from data and transform their decision-making from reactive to proactive," said Rodney Gedda, senior analyst at Telsyte.

The main barriers to mainstream adoption of big data, according to Telsyte, include software costs, lack of in-house skills, and IT infrastructure requirements.

A study by Telsyte published in November last year indicates a greater uptake of emerging technologies among Australian enterprises. 3D printing was found to be gaining traction among enterprises, with 24 percent using it or having exploratory projects in place.

The study also found that one in three enterprises intend to use robotics, while 25 percent of organisations with more than 500 employees are already using robotic process automation.

Augmented reality (AR) and mixed reality (MR) were also found to be of high interest, with 57 percent of enterprises currently using or intending to use AR/MR technology.

Meanwhile, 22 percent of enterprises have IoT programs or pilot programs in production, while 29 percent have IoT devices and a strategy, but nothing in operation.