Big Data Will Drive $28 Billion of IT Spending in 2012

Big data will drive $28 billion of worldwide IT spending in 2012, according to Gartner, Inc. in a report entitled Big Data Drives Rapid Changes in Infrastructure and $232 Billion in IT Spending Through 2016 ($495, 15 pages)

In 2013, big data is forecast to drive $34 billion of IT spending and $232 billion in 2016.
 
Most of the current spending is used in adapting traditional solutions to the big data demands – machine data, social data, widely varied data, unpredictable velocity, and so on – and only $4.3 billion in software sales will be driven directly by demands for new big data functionality in 2012.
 
Big data currently has the most significant impact in social network analysis and content analytics with 45% of new spending each year. In traditional IT supplier markets, application infrastructure and middleware is most affected (10% of new spending each year is influenced by big data in some way) when compared with storage software, database management system, data integration/quality, business intelligence or supply chain management (SCM).
 
"Despite the hype, big data is not a distinct, stand-alone market, it but represents an industry-wide market force which must be addressed in products, practices and solution delivery," said Mark Beyer, research VP at Gartner. "In 2011, big data formed a new driver in almost every category of IT spending. However, through 2018, big data requirements will gradually evolve from differentiation to ‘table stakes’ in information management practices and technology. By 2020, big data features and functionality will be non-differentiating and routinely expected from traditional enterprise vendors and part of their product offerings."
 
Big data opportunities emerged when several advances in different IT categories aligned in a short period at the end of the last decade, creating a dramatic increase in computing technology capacity. This new capacity, coupled with latent demands for analysis of ‘dark data,’ social networks data and operational technology (or machine data), created an environment highly conducive to rapid innovation.
 
Starting near the end of 2015, Gartner expects leading organisations to begin to use their big data experience in an almost embedded form in their architectures and practices. Beginning in 2018, big data solutions will be offering increasingly less of a distinct advantage over traditional solutions that have incorporated new features and functions to support greater agility when addressing volume, variety and velocity. However, the skills, practices and tools currently viewed as big data solutions will persist as leading organisations will have incorporated the design principles and acquired the skills necessary to address big data concerns as routine flexibility.
 
"Because big data’s effects are pervasive, big data will evolve to become a standardised requirement in leading information architectural practices, forcing older practices and technology into early obsolescence," said Beyer. "As a result, big data will once again become ‘just data’ by 2020 and architectural approaches, infrastructure and hardware/software that does not adapt to this ‘new normal’ will be retired. Organisations resisting this change will suffer severe economic impacts."
 
Gartner will present its latest IT spending outlook during the webinar, Gartner Worldwide IT Spending Forecast, 3Q12 Update at 4:00pm UK on 23 October.

To register
 
Gartner analysts will be further discussing the future of big data at Gartner Symposium/ITxpo 2012.