IDC Predicts Strong Growth for Big Data and Business Analytics
International Data Corp. (IDC) expects worldwide revenue for big data and business analytics (BDA) solutions to reach $260 billion in 2022, with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 11.9 percent. It values the current market at $166 billion, up 11.7 percent over 2017.
The industries making the largest investments in big data and business analytics solutions are banking, manufacturing, professional services, and government, the research firm concluded in its "Worldwide Semiannual Big Data and Analytics Spending Guide." Combined, these industries will account for nearly half ($81 billion) of worldwide revenue this year. They will also have the largest opportunity in 2022, when their total investment will be $129 billion. The industries that will deliver the fastest revenue growth are retail (13.5 percent CAGR), banking (13.2 percent CAGR), and professional services (12.9 percent CAGR).
"At a high level, organizations are turning to Big Data and analytics solutions to navigate the convergence of their physical and digital worlds," said Jessica Goepfert, program vice president for customer insights and analysis at IDC, in a statement. "This transformation takes a different shape depending on the industry. For instance, within banking and retail investments are all about managing and reinvigorating the customer experience. Whereas in manufacturing, firms are reinventing themselves to essentially be high tech companies, using their products as a platform to enable and deliver digital services."
More than half of all revenue will go to IT and business services. Services-related revenue will also be among the fastest growing areas of opportunity, with a combined CAGR of 13.2 percent. Software investments will grow to more than $90 billion in 2022, led by purchases of end-user query, reporting, and analysis tools and relational data warehouse management tools. Two of the fastest growing technology categories will be cognitive/artificial intelligence software platforms (36.5 percent CAGR) and non-relational analytic data stores (30.3 percent CAGR). Purchases of servers and storage will grow at a CAGR of 7.3 percent, reaching nearly $27.0 billion in 2022.
The United States is by far the largest geographic market, delivering nearly $88 billion this year and more than half of the worldwide total throughout the five-year forecast. Western Europe is the second largest geographic market, with 2018 revenue expected to reach $35 billion, followed by the Asia/Pacific region with $23.9 billion. Japan will be the second largest country for investments in 2018, followed by the United Kingdom, Germany, and China. The countries with the fastest growth are Argentina (20.8 percent CAGR), Vietnam (19.8 percent CAGR), the Philippines (19.5 percent CAGR), and Indonesia (19.4 percent CAGR).
Very large businesses with more than 1,000 employees will be responsible for nearly two thirds of the big data and business analytics opportunity throughout the forecast, surpassing $100 billion in 2018.