Big data adoption is trailing as approximately 60 percent of enterprises do not know how to gain its insights, said a Dell survey.
The survey of more than 2,000 global enterprises said security is the biggest concern in adopting cloud, mobility and big data. 97 percent use or plan to use cloud and nearly half have implemented a mobility strategy.
“We know that security, cloud, mobility and big data are the top IT priorities in all industries, but we need a deeper understanding of the practical realities of how companies are using these technologies today and what, if anything, is preventing them from unleashing their full potential,” said Karen Quintos, chief marketing officer, Dell.
Security
IT decision makers still consider security the biggest barrier for expanding mobility technologies (44 percent), using cloud computing (52 percent) and leveraging big data (35 percent).
A lack of security information is preventing organizations from being prepared during a security breach. 30 percent of respondents said they have the right information available to make risk-based decisions, and one in four organizations actually has a plan in place for security breaches.
28 percent have a C-suite mindset that is engaged with security initiatives. In organizations where executive leadership is involved in security, confidence is increased. Among organizations which are very confident in their security, 84 percent of senior leaders are fully or somewhat engaged, compared to 43 percent of senior leaders at organizations who are not confident in their security.
Security resources are primarily spent on protecting against hackers (43 percent) and adhering to compliance regulations (37 percent).
39 percent have a workforce that is fully aware of the organization’s own security rules.
13 percent are using security to enable new things, while only 18 percent are using security as a competitive advantage.
Cloud
Nearly every IT decision-maker surveyed said their company either uses or plans to use cloud solutions. 3 percent of respondents are not planning to leverage cloud solutions.
Of those using cloud, 72 percent of organizations surveyed experienced 6 percent growth or more in the last three years, with just 4 percent experiencing zero or negative growth. 24 of companies, which are not using cloud, have growth rates of 6 percent or more, and 37 percent experienced either zero or negative growth.
Organizations using three or more types of cloud solutions experienced a 15 percent increase in employee productivity relative to those using only one type of cloud solution.
Better allocation of IT resources (44 percent), cost savings (42 percent) and efficiency (40 percent) are the three most commonly realized benefits by those using cloud.
50 percent of organizations are using one type of cloud, while 26 percent are using more than two types of cloud.
Mobility
41 percent listed efficiency as the biggest mobility benefit, while 32 percent listed employee productivity.
With mobile use so prevalent in developing countries, organizations in those countries had higher adoption rates of a formal bring-your-own device (BYOD) policy (34 percent in Latin America and 37 percent in Asia Pacific compared to 30 percent in North America and 20 percent in Europe/Middle East/Africa).
Half of respondents cited risk of data breach from lost devices and unprotected wireless networks as the biggest mobility risk and 44 percent listed fear of security breach as the primary barrier to expanding mobile within the organization.
Improper use of company-issued devices was listed as a major mobile security issue. Results show that having a formal BYOD policy is tightly linked to being successful with mobility, however, only 32 percent of respondents have one.
28 percent listed expanding network bandwidth as a key mobile priority, particularly in developing countries. Beyond that, developing tools to make employees more efficient (25 percent) and applications (22 percent) are also important.
While access to cloud databases (76 percent), email (81 percent) and intranets (70 percent) are included in most BYOD plans, end-of-life/asset retirement protocols are only covered in 55 percent of plans.
After security, cost (40 percent), and the complexity of managing multiple platforms and devices (36 percent) are cited as the biggest mobility risks.
Big Data
61 percent of global respondents said they had big data that could be analyzed, while 39 percent understood how to extract value from big data and are pursuing it. Respondents indicated that big data is less of a pressing issue than security, cloud and mobility.
The average three-year growth rate (14 percent) for those most effective in leveraging big data is almost twice as high as that of organizations least effective in using big data (8 percent).
While big data has proven marketing benefits, infrastructure costs (35 percent) and security (35 percent) tend to be the primary obstacles for implementing big data initiatives.
Respondents listed analytics/operational costs (34 percent), lack of management support (22 percent) and lack of technical skills (21 percent) as additional barriers in big data strategies. In response to security concerns, most organizations are leveraging private clouds (43 percent) or traditional servers (24 percent) instead of public clouds (11 percent) to store big data.
Organizations on average feel they are getting only 53 percent of the potential insights from their available data.
Industries such as financial (57 percent) and healthcare and telecom (both at 56 percent) are more apt to take advantage of their big data than others.