Big Data: Gartner shows CIOs have more than they can handle

Most CIOs do not feel prepared for an increasing torrent of data. That’s the takeaway of a Gartner survey published yesterday that showed 51% of CIOs are concerned that data is coming faster than they can manage, and showed that 42% feel they lack the talent necessary to take them forward.

That’s a pretty tough place to be as the world digitizes faster every day.

Compounding this problem, CIOs have two tracks to follow simultaneously — being very good at what they do and being faster at doing it.

Morgan Stanley CIO survey

Balancing that news is a Morgan Stanley survey of 150 European and US CIOs shows that IT spending is actually increasing. The average increase is projected to be around 4.6% for 2014 as CIOs play catchup on cloud computing, ERP and analytics software. But before that sounds all that great, technology budgets have been underserved and we’re only now returning to the growth rates from 2008, before budgets were slashed.

There is enormous ground to make up and that kind of increase won’t be enough.

Where does it go?

The answer will have to come from more use of the cloud and SaaS, less partnering with behemoth (expensive and slow) software companies, and better use of agile development techniques. This is the only way to renovate existing systems while finding ways to take advantage of new technology options. Mostly flat budgets means this can’t come from massive outsourcing anymore and will need to come from creativity found on premise, not off. This will also create a strong need for state-of-the-art integration technologies that can replace outdated infrastructure.

The news out of Gartner and Morgan Stanley tells us that digitization is becoming a hurdle that we’re not yet ready to clear. Budgets aren’t rising to meet the demand, the demand (the speed, amount and complexity of data) is increasing rapidly and the human talent that would come up with cost-effective solutions is missing. These are a tough combination of factors and are likely to move us toward a market of data “haves” and “have nots.”