Data trends to be thankful for

As the application space for business technology migrates more and more to iPads and other smart devices, business intelligence and productivity tools are becoming more common in the hands of on-the-go users. The Business Application Research Center predicts mobile business intelligence usage alone will triple in the coming year.

Agile BI allows us to deliver new information to business users quicker than ever before. This means that BI can respond in line with changing business needs and become a strategic asset for organisations.

The service market for software, infrastructure and tools started slower than some expected but is now growing toward widespread institutional use. By 2016, Saugatuck Technology predicts 75 percent of all new enterprise spending will be based in the cloud.

It is estimated that the digital universe will grow from 3.2 zettabytes today to 40 zettabytes in only six years (one zettabyte is roughly a billion terabytes), and data volumes in the enterprise is going to grow 50x year-over-year between now and 2020. Pretty mind-blowing.

The trend of employees bringing their own devices to work is often popular with workers who want to use the devices they choose instead of the ones their companies might provide. Employees who get to use the devices they already know can be more productive, and may need to rely on corporate support less often than workers forced to deal with unfamiliar smartphones, tablets, and laptops.