UPDATE - 2nd Watch Survey Reveals Big Data Focus, Spending for Large Companies

SEATTLE, WA--(Marketwired - Jun 15, 2015) - 2nd Watch, a managed public cloud provider, released survey results today showing that most companies are actively working on big data projects and have dedicated significant dollars to their efforts. The online survey, conducted the first two weeks in May, included 500 IT and business executives in the United States.

According to the survey, nearly 60% of companies are currently engaged in a big data project, while 20% say they will soon begin one. The business leader driving these projects is firstly the CEO (32%) followed by the CIO (25%) and line of business managers (18%).

Thus far, big data has not translated into big money. The majority (34%) of companies polled are spending just $50,000-$100,000 on their big data initiatives, and nearly one-fifth (18%) are spending more than $100,000. Top areas for spending and research include supporting social media and digital marketing initiatives (26%), followed closely by improving internal processes and operations (25%).

To address the unique needs of big data deployments, the majority of participants (71%) report that their company is considering purchasing or has already adopted a new data warehouse. Companies are experiencing several limitations with their current relational database systems including scalability (22%), maintenance (22%) performance (22%), cost (17%) and access (16%). Established enterprise vendors dominate customer preferences for new database technology, with IBM the most popular choice (38%), followed by Oracle (31%) and HP (24%).

Cloud infrastructure companies however are ramping up their offerings in database and analytics management. AWS for example has been making waves with its Amazon Redshift data warehouse service, which AWS CTO Werner Vogels recently described as the company's "fastest-growing service ever." Gartner, according to Gartner's Magic Quadrant for Cloud Infrastructure as a Service report, meanwhile has said that database as a service products like Amazon Redshift are key differentiators for cloud IaaS providers. Amazon Redshift is highly regarded for its power, speed, security, low cost and ease of use. Airbnb, Nokia and Pinterest are among the name brand customers known to be using Amazon Redshift.

"Our research shows that big data has moved from market hype to valid competitive strategy for the largest companies, with support from the very tops of their organizations," says Jeff Aden, EVP of Marketing and Strategic Business Development at 2nd Watch. "That said, some companies are still wrestling with outdated infrastructure and a lack of internal expertise when it comes to initiating and completing big data projects. 2nd Watch which recently achieved the AWS Big Data Competency, are working hard to help companies overcome these issues, and we firmly expect the pace of big data projects to accelerate in the coming months."

Additional Survey Findings:

Top business hurdles to implementing big data: Organizational silos (21%), lack of money (21%) lack of consensus on goals (16%) and lack of executive support (16%).

Top technical hurdles to implementing big data: Data quality issues (21%), outdated infrastructure (20%), lack of internal expertise (18%), governance and security challenges (17%), silos of data and legacy apps (12%) and too much data (10%).

Top drivers for big data plans: Identify new areas for business growth or product strategy (33%), identify areas for operational efficiency and cost savings (28%), to better understand customers and improve customer experience (25%), pressure from business executives to mine data (13%).

Leading technologies companies will invest in to prepare for big data: Networking and servers (24%), databases and storage (23%), cloud services or infrastructure hosting (19%) analytics software (18%) and integration software (15%).

About 2nd Watch
2nd Watch manages the public cloud for enterprises and helps automate the development, deployment, governance, procurement, financial management, migration and operations of business critical workloads. The company's software and services extend and automate every day workload management processes for the public cloud including: big data analytics, digital marketing, line-of-business and cloud native applications. By combining proven methodologies, public cloud expertise, certified personnel and patent-pending automation software, 2nd Watch is currently delivering managed cloud and automation across more than 300 enterprise workloads and more than 75,000 instances. The venture-backed company is headquartered in Seattle, Washington. To learn more about 2nd Watch, visit www.2ndwatch.com or call 888-317-7920.