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A new study commissioned by Capital One from Forrester, titled New Data Management Models Are Essential To Operate In The Cloud, shows that as companies move more data to the cloud, they need to employ responsible data management to drive positive business outcomes in the face of exponential data growth.
One of the biggest data challenges decision-makers currently face is fully understanding the complexity of their organizations’ data estates, with 78% of decision-makers citing a lack of data cataloging as a top challenge. Without data cataloging, decision-makers struggle to understand what data they have, how the data is used, and who owns the data.
This leads to other key challenges, such as poor data quality (80%), difficulty understanding data (76%), and a lack of data observability (74%).
Cloud data management challenges
More than eight in 10 data management decision-makers (82%) cite forecasting and controlling costs as a data ecosystem challenge. Usage-based pricing models that coincide with cloud computing introduce month-to-month cost variability. What was once meticulously planned and budgeted on-premises, is now unpredictable.
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As data volume and usage expands, opacity impedes both general accounting and opportunities to drive cost efficiency. Without the ability to predict and manage cloud costs, decision-makers can find themselves quickly over budget.
The ongoing cloud talent shortage is also affecting data management. Decision-makers say they do not have enough staff, in-house expertise, or collaboration between teams and tools to achieve their desired outcomes.
Cloud opportunities
According to survey respondents, data protection, data quality, and infrastructure management will remain key capabilities in the near future, but decision-makers anticipate a shift in the next one to two years. Most notably, investment in entitlements is expected to nearly double (17% today; 31% in one to two years).
Moving forward, data protection and security will remain a top priority for cloud data investments, along with tools that make data easier to find and use and those that reduce and manage costs.
As the 74% of decision-makers who are starting their organizations’ cloud journey move more data to the cloud, they need to address key challenges to ensure they are getting the most out of their data and can leverage that data at scale, gaining agility, increasing cost efficiency and making better informed decisions. Firms that fail to do this will miss the moment and fall behind.
This Opportunity Snapshot was commissioned by Capital One. To create this profile, Forrester Consulting supplemented this research with custom survey questions asked of 157 data management decision-makers in North America. The custom survey began and was completed in March 2022.
Read the full report from Capital One.
