More than two-fifths said this is coming in the form of more structured data flowing through their systems, while one in four reported seeing surges in user-generated unstructured data files, video, audio, documents, and social media.
For more than one-third of data executives, it’s simply all about more big data flowing into their analytical systems. Interestingly, while the Internet of Things is still in its nascent stages, more than one in 10 executives reported this as a source of increased data traffic.
What is Driving Enterprise Data Growth?
Greater business transaction volume...48%
More business-critical structured data...42%
More replicated data (for test, development,backup, mirroring, or disaster recovery)...36%
Increased big data/analytics requirements...35%
More dev/test environments...34%
Compliance requirements...24%
More user-generated unstructured data files, video, audio, documents, and social media...23%
Increased virtualization...21%
Archiving of cold/dormant data...18%
New business units from merger or acquisition...15%
More machine-generated unstructured data files/devices and sensors (Internet of Things)...11%
Don’t know/unsure...14%
Other...1%
Enterprises are embracing a range of tactics and strategies to meet the requirements of ever-burgeoning data storage. Cloud, in particular, is increasingly being embraced to address storage requirements. More than one in five respondents said they now have at least some enterprise data stored within a private cloud setting, double the number from 2 years ago. More than one in 10 respondents also said they are comfortable with putting data into a public cloud, a number that has also risen since the previous survey.
Enterprise Data Volume Cloud Storage ?as Part of Enterprise Storage Architecture
2014 2016
Private cloud 10% 21%
Public (external) cloud 7% 11%
Hybrid cloud — 11%
Still, as enterprise data managers struggle to keep up with increasing data volumes, there continues to be a tendency to mix smart strategies such as cloud-bursting with old-fashioned brute force.