Global survey of IT and engineering leaders shows more than 3 out of 4 businesses would lose customers without access to real-time data streams 

The movement toward setting data in motion with real-time streaming is experiencing a groundswell. According to brand-new survey data, 97% of organisations around the world are tapping into real-time data streaming, making it one of the most important technologies for thriving in today’s digital-first landscape.

For the inaugural State of Data in Motion report, Confluent, Inc. (NASDAQ: CFLT) surveyed 1,950 IT and engineering leaders across six countries. The findings emphasised how data in motion can underpin businesses that excel at serving, retaining, and attracting customers, now and into the future.

“Real-time data streams are becoming core to how we serve customers and run our business,” said Yaël Gomez, Vice President, Global IT, Integration and Intelligent Automation, Walgreens Boots Alliance. “With quality data in motion, we can manage customer engagement, ensure vaccine and testing accessibility for patients, and enable a differentiated online retail proposition. An organisation-wide IT modernisation effort has led to an increasingly seamless omnichannel experience.” 

Key Findings from the State of Data in Motion Report 

The report reflects the growing data streaming market today. It shows how real-time data influences everything from how employees get their work done to how companies engage customers and deliver goods. However, harnessing this powerful force is difficult for many organisations. Data becomes harder to wrangle as it quickly grows in volume and the variety of places it’s pulled from and stored. 

“Data has emerged as one of the most important assets needed for business success,” said Erica Schultz, President of Field Operations, Confluent. “Modernising data infrastructure with real-time data streams — what we call “data in motion” — enables continuous movement and processing of data for better workflows, more automation, real-time analytics, and differentiated digital customer experiences. This technology is crucial for organisations to compete and win in the digital-first world.”

This is the first global industry report that focuses on tech leaders’ experience with data in motion, exploring topics like the benefits they experience, the roadblocks they face with widespread adoption, and the role they believe real-time data streaming will ultimately play in their success. 

Key findings include: 

• Data in motion boosts customer engagement and the bottom line
  
  • Most leaders have access to some degree of real-time data streams (97%), but those with widespread access (66%) see higher revenues. 
    
  • A large segment (63%) of those with widespread access to real-time data saw an annual revenue growth of 10% or more between 2020 and year-end 2021, despite the global pandemic.
    
  • 8 in 10 IT leaders say that real-time data streams are very, or extremely, important when it comes to building rich customer experiences.

• Real-time data streaming is essential, but challenging without the right technology
  • 60% of IT leaders say difficulties integrating multiple data sources are the biggest hurdle to accessing more real-time data — nearly twice as many respondents as those who cited a lack of budget.
    
  • 76% of IT leaders said the timely integration of real-time data from different applications is important for critical processes within their organisation. But nearly half (40%) reported difficulty integrating data in a timely way.
    
  • 2 out of 3 organisations (68%) say it’s challenging to even find the data they need to build real-time applications. 

• Success in the cloud demands secure data streaming between clouds 
  
  • Only 39% of respondents say they’re “completely prepared” to operate in a hybrid cloud environment, where some of their data is in the cloud and some still on premises.
    
  • While the multi-cloud is common, 32% of IT leaders struggle to synchronize data between storage environments effectively.
    
  • Of companies operating on premises, 69% report security concerns like ensuring data protection, losing control of data security, and/or threats of being hacked as their top reasons for hesitating to move to the cloud.

The report is based on a survey conducted by Lawless Research from January to March 2022. Responses from 1,950 IT and engineering leaders were collected across the United States, United Kingdom, France, Germany, Australia, and Singapore.

This was a 15-minute blind survey of full-time employees of companies with more than 500 employees