Just How Big Is the Big Data Market?

There is a very high level of interest and hype surrounding “analytics,” “Big Data,” and business intelligence (BI) that is leading to a slew of market projections and forecasts. Vendors and buyers alike are confronted with a dizzying array of choices and data that all hopes to define these markets and provide solutions.

But, one of the biggest issues still remains – a clear definition of terms. Some reports estimate that there are at least 1,000 marketing technology vendors. At Efectyv Digital, along with Incisive Media (publisher of this site), we’ve created our own Convergence Analytics Report 3.0 (free download) to help define the market and the terms.

In addition, a number of other leading publications, vendors, and analyst firms have created materials on the topic. Presented below is a compilation of recent forecasts and market estimates that are useful for buyers and vendors alike.

Analysts Predict Strong BI Software and Services Growth

A.T. Kearney forecasts global spending on Big Data hardware, software, and services will grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 30 percent through 2018, reaching a total market size of $114 billion. The average business expects to spend $8 million on Big Data-related initiatives this year. Source: Beyond Big: The Analytically Powered Organization.

Cloud-based BI is projected to grow from $0.75 billion in 2013 to $2.94 billion in 2018, attaining a CAGR of 31 percent. Redwood Capital‘s recent Sector Report on Business Intelligence (free, no opt-in) provides a great analysis of the current and future direction of BI. Redwood Capital segments the BI market into traditional, mobile, cloud, and social business intelligence.

A.T. Kearney and CMU contend that enterprises getting the most value out of analytics and BI have leaders that concentrate more on collaboration, building team confidence, and creating an active analytics community, while laggards focus on technology alone. They recently surveyed 430 companies globally, representing a wide range of geographies and industries, for the inaugural Leadership Excellence in Analytic Practices (LEAP) study.

Here’s another big number- Big Data is projected to be a $28.5 billion market in 2014, growing to $50.1 billion in 2015 according to Wikkbon. The report, Big Data Vendor Revenue and Market Forecast 2013-2017, is outstanding in its accuracy and depth of analysis.

SAP, IBM, SAS, Microsoft, Oracle, Information Builders, MicroStrategy, and Actuate are market leaders in BI according to Forrester’s latest Wave analysis of BI platforms. Their report, The Forrester Wave: Enterprise Business Intelligence Platforms, Q4 2013 (free PDF, no opt-in, courtesy of SAS) provides a thorough analysis of 11 different BI software providers using the research firm’s 72-criteria evaluation methodology.

Amazon Web Services, Cloudera, Hortonworks, IBM, MapR Technologies, Pivotal Software, and Teradata are Big Data Hadoop market leaders according to Forrester’s latest Wave analysis of Hadoop Solutions. Their report, The Forrester Wave: Big Data Hadoop Solutions, Q1 2014 (free PDF, no opt-in, courtesy of MapR Technologies) provides a detailed analysis of nine different Big Data Hadoop software providers using the research firm’s 32-criteria evaluation methodology. It’s an interesting read.

Global Big Data technology and services revenue will grow from $14.26 billion in 2014 to $23.76 billion in 2016, attaining a compound annual growth rate of 18.55 percent. These figures and a complete market analysis are available in IDC’s Worldwide Big Data Technology and Services 2012 – 2016 Forecast. You can download the full report here (free, no opt-in): Worldwide Big Data Technology and Services 2012 – 2016 Forecast.

Big Data technology and services will grow from $1.95 billion in 2013 to $9.83 billion in 2020, attaining a CAGR of 26 percent. These and other market forecasts and projections are in a report Huawei sponsored titled Big Data & Advanced Analytics in Telecom: A Multi-Billion-Dollar Revenue Opportunity.

Easy-to-Use Features Fuel Predictive Analytic Growth

The advanced and predictive analytics (APA) software market is projected from grow from $2.2 billion in 2013 to $3.4 billion in 2018, attaining a 9.9 percent CAGR in the forecast period. The top three vendors in 2013 based on worldwide revenue were SAS SAS ($768.3M MMM +0.12 percent, 35.4 percent market share), IBM IBM +1.19 percent ($370.3M, 17.1 percent market share) and Microsoft MSFT -0.36 percent ($64.9M, 3 percent market share). It is somewhat important to note that IDC says that simplified APA tools that provide less flexibility than standalone statistical models tools, yet have more intuitive graphical user interfaces and easier-to-use features are fueling business analysts’ adoption. Source here.

The bottom line? No one knows for sure about the size, but everyone knows that it’s moving very quickly and growing very large!

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