Want to boost the ROI of data? Invest in DevOps and use innovation metrics that don't focus on money

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Everyone is talking astir however information is driving concern strategy but lone a fewer concern leaders person figured retired however to crook investigation into action. Splunk's State of Data Innovation 2021 study recovered that lone astir 9% of companies are utilizing information to thrust innovation. 

Only 9% of the 1,200 concern and IT leaders surveyed were information leaders. Those companies person these markers of success:

• Developed 8 products oregon services successful the past twelvemonth attributed to information innovation
• Are astir doubly arsenic apt to accidental these products person opened up caller markets
• Have accrued worker productivity successful the past twelvemonth
• Are astir doubly arsenic apt to beryllium straight monetizing information

More than fractional of the survey respondents (56%) landed successful the beginner signifier of information maturity with the remaining 35% successful the followers category. 

How bash they bash it?

The study identified 9 strategies that starring companies usage to crook information into measurable affirmative outcomes:

1. Get information to developers fast: Leaders are 4 times arsenic apt arsenic beginners to person accelerated information transportation implicit the past year.
2. Prioritize among conflicting goals: Data leaders are much apt to usage information to prime innovations that volition beryllium good received by customers.
3. Observability is cutting edge: Leaders are up of the battalion successful utilizing borderline computing and observability. 
4. Dig heavy into data: Go beyond the basics and incorporated web data, application/transaction show data, sensor/IoT information and physical/virtual server data.
5. Incentivize innovation: Offer effect backing oregon fund for employees to trial caller ideas, make dedicated clip for moving connected those ideas and necktie bonuses to nonfinancial innovation metrics.
6. Create innovation metrics that don't absorption connected money: Measure the fig of ideas generated, hypotheses tested oregon patent applications filed. 
7. Make innovation someone's job: Your enactment squad should see a main lawsuit officer, main information officer, innovation serviceman oregon a unreality architect.
8. Push harder to instrumentality DevOps and DevSecOps: More than 79% of leaders are utilizing these approaches extensively.
9. Invest successful information innovation: Leaders walk up to 50% much of their tech budgets connected data-centric solutions and staff.

SEE: Report: SMB's unprepared to tackle information privacy (TechRepublic Premium)

Common barriers to information innovation

Splunk identified cross-team collaboration arsenic the azygous biggest blocker of innovation. Survey respondents listed this situation arsenic the astir communal gating origin to investigating and implementing caller ideas. As the study authors note, "Innovation breaks mean processes, workflows and mindsets, truthful marque it imaginable (and appropriately prioritized) for groups to get down caller possibilities and enactment cross-functionally effectively."

The survey besides recovered that these are the astir communal information maturity inhibitors:

• Lack of a classification strategy that defines astir oregon each data
• No broad information aggregation
• No measures of information prime
• Little advancement connected automatic information monitoring
• Sufficient grooming and tools for employees

Survey methodology

Splunk utilized these six measures to gauge leader/follower/beginner presumption among survey respondents:

• Data definition: Classifying and tagging information with metadata that supports entree and use.
• Data aggregation: Consolidating the information from an endeavor arsenic a full and successful specified a mode that allows antithetic concern silos to entree each other's data.
• Data quality: Measuring however accurate, complete, accordant and deduplicated information is.
• Data probe skills: Ensuring that employees person the close skills to query the organization's information to reply concern questions.
• Data probe tools: Ensuring that employees person the close tools to query the organization's information to reply concern questions.
• Data monitoring: Automating queries to seizure ongoing and real-time answers to important concern questions.

Leaders excelled astatine each six factors, followers had mastered 3 to 5 and beginners had figured retired 2 oregon fewer. The study authors noted that erstwhile probe has recovered akin numbers with leaders representing 9-11% of the illustration with the beginner radical ranging from 50-60%. This suggests that astir 10% of each larger companies are astatine the starring borderline of integer translation portion astir fractional person hardly begun.

Enterprise Strategy Group conducted the survey successful June which includes respondents from 10 countries from North America, Western Europe and Asia Pacific. About 84% of respondents enactment astatine companies with 1,000 oregon much employees and 16% enactment astatine mid-sized companies of 500-999 employees. Eighty-three percent are elder IT and concern determination makers. 

Also see

• How to go a information scientist: A cheat sheet (TechRepublic)
• Big data's relation successful COVID-19 (free PDF) (TechRepublic)
• Power checklist: Local email server-to-cloud migration (TechRepublic Premium)
• Volume, velocity, and variety: Understanding the 3 V's of large data (ZDNet)
• Big Data: More must-read coverage (TechRepublic connected Flipboard)