Back in October 2021, we took a look at some data we collected at Big Data London (BDL) related to companies’ data strategies. Since then, we’ve collected even more data on the subject.

At Web Summit in November, we set up the same survey machine we took to BDL, and again asked attendees a few questions about their data environments. You can find the updated dashboard (aka the Swag Machine) toward the bottom of this post.

But first, let’s zoom in on the same thing we explored last time: the concept of data centralization. At each event, we recorded a few hundred responses to our questions about data environments. Then, we created a heat map around two of the questions:

• Does your organization centralize its data?
• How confident are you in your data and analytics tech stack’s ability to adapt to your organization’s long-term plans?

What we learned from the Big Data London data is that organizations that have their data in a centralized storage location tend to have more confidence in their tech stack’s ability to support the business’s long-term plans. The responses we received at Web Summit reinforced this concept:

Indeed, organizations with centralized data are roughly three times as likely to be 100% or Highly Confident in their data and analytics tech stack’s ability to adapt to their organization’s long-term plans as those without centralized data. The centralized data folks are also about half as likely to be Not or Not At All Confident in that ability.

The correlation here is pretty clear, and echoes what I hear when speaking with prospects, customers, and data professionals. Data silos tend to be a pain point in an organization’s data journey, and bringing that data together generally leads to better outcomes.

Learn more by playing around with the Swag Machine: