About 82% of decision-makers say data strategy key to better business outcomes: Oracle

About 82% of the senior technology decision-makers recognise that investing in data management strategy will lead to better business outcomes, a new study commissioned by Enterprise cloud services provider Oracle has found. 

The study also found that 73% of respondents admit that they have disparate and siloed data strategies that are stopping them from providing business stakeholders with the data they need.

About 64% of respondents grapple with the challenge of managing a multi-hybrid infrastructure, given the current complex information technology (IT) environment, the company said in a statement. 

The study, “moving the needle: Data management for the multi-hybrid age of IT,” was conducted by Forrester Consulting. It evaluated the state of data management strategy, specifically in organisations across the Asia Pacific (APAC) and Europe and the Middle East markets.

The online survey was based on data from 670 technology and business decision-makers with responsibility for data infrastructure and data strategy. It also conducted interviews with 10 C-level executives across these respondents to dig deeper into their approach and best practices of data management.

Other key findings of the study were that 36% of the data is still hosted on-premise, 19% is hosted on a public cloud and 18% on a private cloud. Also, the public sector still lags behind data strategy, with  34% of the public sector and healthcare organisations having an incomplete data strategy.

“Organisations in the Asia Pacific are making strong progress in terms of unifying data sources and getting on top of data security and governance requirements. But the study reveals that their intense focus on these areas may be holding them back from realising some of the benefits of multi-hybrid cloud they need right now around providing access to capabilities and supporting diversification,” Chung Heng, senior vice president, Oracle Systems, JAPAC and EMEA said.

According to Heng, a third of companies in JAPAC (Japan and Asia Pacific) appear focused on diversification of data management as compared to over two thirds in Europe. Companies that do not get on the multi-hybrid cloud environment are likely to be left behind.  

The other concern highlighted in the study was around data security and data governance.

It also identified that the adoption of multi-cloud data hosting is driven by the need for specific technology capability. The study found six out of 10 respondents mentioned “accessing specific technology or capabilities” as drivers for their multi-cloud strategy.

Although 83% of firms believe that data security requirements are of high or critical priority as they advance along with their data management roadmap, half of the respondents say they currently lack the ability to adequately ensure data protection and comply with security regulations, the company said.

Given these challenges, organisations need to look at their technology partners for a unified data platform, which will provide end-to-end visibility across their hybrid environments, along with the security foundations that are flexible enough to meet current and future data complexities, the study recommends.