Revenues for big data and analytics (BDA) in the Middle East and Africa (MEA) region totalled $1.98 billion in 2016, with growth expected to reach approximately $3.20 billion in 2020.
This is according to the Worldwide Semiannual Big Data and Analytics Spending Guidefrom International Data Corporation (IDC), which expects the region to see year-on-year growth of 11% in big data and analytics spending for 2017, to reach $2.20 billion. This, according to the research firm, represents a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 10.0% over the 2016-20 period.
When it comes to the technologies used in BDA implementations, IDC notes a large portion of investment is focused on IT and business services, which accounted for 55.1% of overall spending. This is followed by software spending.
"This highlights that organisations in the region clearly face challenges in finding skills to support big data and analytics deployments, and rely heavily on partners to support them until the solution goes into production," says Megha Kumar, research director for software at IDC MEA. "Spending on software in the BDA space is focused on solutions for end-user query and reporting and databases."
MEA organisations acknowledge the need to leverage data for taking strategic decisions, continues Kumar. "There is a lot of focus around customer analytics and operational analytics to gain insights on customers and improve overall performance. While there is uptake around advanced and predictive workloads, it is very clear that many industries are still struggling to understand the use cases they can leverage within their sector."
In terms of industries, the government sector (both state and federal/local government) was the largest spender on BDA solutions in MEA in 2016, accounting for 20.4% of spending. It was followed by the financial sector (19.2%) and telecommunications (13.3%). Other industries with longer-term potential include manufacturing (both discrete and processed manufacturing), healthcare provider, resource industries, utilities, and transportation.
According to a survey by Gartner, big data investments continue to rise but are showing signs of contracting. The survey revealed that 48% of companies globally invested in big data in 2016, up 3% from 2015. However, those who plan to invest in big data within the next two years fell from 31% to 25% in 2016.
"Investment in big data is up, but the survey is showing signs of slowing growth with fewer companies having a future intent to invest," says Nick Heudecker, research director at Gartner. "The big issue is not so much big data itself, but rather how it is used. While organisations have understood that big data is not just about a specific technology, they need to avoid thinking about big data as a separate effort."
Thore Rabe, vice president Europe, Middle East and Africa - Isilon division at EMC, says while many companies have been collecting and storing data for a long time, they are still some way from truly seeing its benefits and value. "For many, being able to connect and analyse vast amounts of data from daily life and use key insights to improve products or services still remains a dream.
"Organisations that approach big data from a value perspective and involve senior business decision-makers across the business as well as IT are much more likely to be successful than those which adopt a purely technology-based approach," he adds.
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