Big data is a big problem

Survey shows that storing large amounts of data is problematic

Big data is the most challenging storage problems in the UK this year, according to new figures.

71 per cent of organisations that were asked agreed that storing data sets comprising large volumes, varieties or velocities ranked among their top two biggest challenges across all sectors.

Amplidata, who commissioned independent researcher Vanson Bourne to carry out the survey, is a object storage provider. Respondents were asked to rank four common storage challenges in order of importance: big data, always-on storage for cloud applications, building disk archives to replace tape and data storage.

Storing large data was cited as a top-two challenge by 84 per cent of retail, distribution and transport firms questioned.

It was also judged most problematic for the manufacturing sector, with 72 per cent of respondents agreeing that it was either their company's first or second priority.

The lowest priority for the same sector was building disk archives in order to replace tape, with nearly half of those questioned listing it as their lowest priority.

Mike Wall, executive chairman of Amplidata, said: "Managing large volumes of data, structured or unstructured, is not just a case of adding storage to your datacentre.

"It presents challenges that only appear when the amount of data reaches a certain size.

"Object storage was specifically designed to address such challenges and, as such, is being adopted as the only viable long-term solution for many big unstructured data projects."

The survey indicates that the bigger the company, the stronger the need to address big data issues.