Gartner: Big Data to Drive $34 Billion of IT Spending in 2013

Big data is forecast to drive $34 billion of worldwide IT spending in 2013, according to research firm Gartner, with the figure for 2012 standing at $28 billion.

It was pointed out that in 2012, only $4.3 billion in software sales will be driven directly by demands for new big data functionality, with most of the current spending being used in adapting traditional solutions to the big data demands—machine data, social data, widely varied data, unpredictable velocity, and so on.

The "Big Data Drives Rapid Changes in Infrastructure and $232 Billion in IT Spending Through 2016" report found that big data currently has the most significant impact in social network analysis and content analytics with 45 percent of new spending each year.  In traditional IT supplier markets, application infrastructure and middleware is the most affected—with 10 percent of new spending each year being influenced by big data in some way—compared to storage software, DBMS, data integration/quality, BI or supply chain management.

"In 2011, big data formed a new driver in almost every category of IT spending. However, through 2018, big data requirements will gradually evolve from differentiation to 'table stakes' in information management practices and technology. By 2020, big data features and functionality will be non-differentiating and routinely expected from traditional enterprise vendors and part of their product offerings," said Mark Beyer, research vice president at Gartner.

The research firm expects leading organizations to begin using their big data experience in an almost embedded form in their architectures and practices, towards the end of 2015.

"Because big data's effects are pervasive, big data will evolve to become a standardized requirement in leading information architectural practices, forcing older practices and technology into early obsolescence," said Beyer.

While, by 2018, big data solutions will be offering increasingly less of a distinct advantage over traditional solutions that have incorporated new features and functions to support greater agility, Gartner expects that the skills, practices and tools currently viewed as big data solutions will persist as leading organizations will have incorporated the design principles and acquired the skills necessary to address big data concerns as routine flexibility.

"Big data will once again become 'just data' by 2020 and architectural approaches, infrastructure and hardware/software that does not adapt to this 'new normal' will be retired. Organizations resisting this change will suffer severe economic impacts," added Beyer.