Data Fragmentation Emerges as Biggest Barrier to Digital Transformation in 2022

– Second Annual Informatica – Global CDO Survey finds that CDOs spend 35% of their time tackling day to-day data management as opposed to driving strategy and innovation with data

– 79% of organizations are using more than 100 data sources, adding to the complexity in managing fragmented data

– Enterprises with a high level of data maturity generate 250% more business value

Informatica , an enterprise cloud data management leader, announced the findings from the second annual IDC Global Survey of the Office of the Chief Data Officer (CDO), published in the IDC InfoBrief, “Driving Business Value from Data in the Face of Fragmentation and Complexity”, sponsored by Informatica, examining the CDO’s challenges, priorities and key performance indicators while stewarding enterprises to success in a digital-first world.

“Data is the lifeblood of digital transformation and how well you manage it impacts your business success in a digital-first world,” said Stewart Bond, IDC Research Director. “The survey shows organizations with higher data maturity are better at using cloud and AI to address the primary challenge of fragmentation and complexity and generate higher levels of business value with their data. Organizations seeking to become digital leaders should place a strong focus on data leadership.”

“The changemakers of tomorrow in digital transformation will have to be move beyond just data integration to data intelligence but 37% of data leaders are spending most of their time grappling with data complexity as opposed to driving true transformation with data,” said Jitesh Ghai, Chief Product Officer, Informatica. “This year’s annual CDO study reveals that data fragmentation will be the biggest barrier facing data leaders next year and the key characteristics of those leading data-led transformations and achieving business value versus those that are still struggling to make sense of all of their data.”

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Three key themes from the 2021 Global CDO study include:

Data Fragmentation and Complexity Distract from Innovation

Enterprise infrastructure will be cloud-first and multi-hybrid for many years, with systems spread across on-premise and multi-cloud environments. The findings showed that:

• Nearly 80% of organizations surveyed store more than half of their data in hybrid and multi-cloud infrastructures.
• 79% of organizations are using more than 100 data sources, with 30% using more than 1000 sources.
• 37% of data leaders are barely keeping the lights on when it comes to data management as opposed to driving strategy or innovation with data

But it is this fragmentation, with data spread across multiple sources and many clouds that is making it much more difficult to discover, manage and derive intelligence from their data. Highlighting the chasm in delivering business value between data leaders and laggards, the study found that enterprises with a high level of data maturity generate 250% more business value than those only beginning their data-led transformations, where most of the time in data management is spent keeping the lights on.

Operationalizing AI to Automate Data Management is Critical to Success

Only AI can deliver the speed and scalability demanded by modern enterprises and the study found that data mature organizations were 3X times better at operationalizing AI to automate data management activities than their less mature peers.

• Innovation with data starts with enabling access, yet only 31% of organizations provide AI-powered self-service access to all the data needed by different teams
• Organizations in APAC lead the way with 37% automating data management across the business.
• North American organizations follow closely behind with 33% and EMEA businesses slower to adopt automation with only 25% deploying it in all areas of the organization.

Data leaders were also seen to be leveraging AI driven insights and process optimization to improve efficiency as well as the availability and use of data to users within the business.

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Cloud-centric models and integrated data management approaches

The study highlighted how critical data management is to digital transformation, noting that organizations with strong data leadership are three times more likely to be well underway with digital transformation. With cloud central to that, migrating to the cloud was a primary objective for 34% of respondents.

• Over the past year most organizations increased the data functionality hosted in the cloud by 10-20%. However, a quarter of EMEA and North America enterprises saw a 30% uptick.
• This momentum is set to continue with 30% of organizations noting that migrating data management functions to the cloud is a priority.
• 75% of organizations do not yet have a complete architecture in place to manage an end-to-end set of data activities including integration, access, governance and protection.

The way organizations resolve fragmentation and complexity issues separates leaders from laggards, with leaders adopting an integrated approach to data management with standardization and automation as core facets.