The ways organisations choose to make use of data has the potential to not only increase efficiency, but profitability as well. As more and more organisations utilise this data to undertake digital transformation, who better to set out the true IT perspective on today’s digital economy than IT leaders themselves?

>See also: What’s the role of the CTO in digital transformation?

Evolution: The Data Economy Report is a global research-led study measuring the digital state of today’s businesses and the challenges they face in putting their data to work to drive innovation. The report investigated four areas of the data economy, of which digital dependencies and investment priorities was the first.

Digital dependencies

Digital solutions can bring huge advantages to businesses, which is why it is no surprise that two thirds of respondents state their ambition to become information-based businesses (69%). Evidence that businesses are embracing digital technology is inescapable as it’s already a hugely important revenue driver. Digital solutions now account for almost half of revenue for the survey respondents (45%) with the most widespread digital solutions being:

• Customer records and purchase history (78%).
• Digital platforms for internal communications (80%).
• Digital platforms for customer support (74%).

Investment priorities

More striking are the areas where businesses plan to increase their investment in the next financial year. Ultimately, innovative digital solutions are founded on data. And businesses clearly feel the need to invest in ways to better manage, store, analyse and – ultimately – profit from data.

>See also: The digital transformation of things

But as well as investing in technologies that support innovation, it’s great to see a real commitment to emerging categories like machine learning skills (43% planning increased investment) and AI technologies (37% planning increased investment.)

Application economics

The results form conclusive evidence that businesses now rely on hundreds of applications for their day-to-day operation. Access to data is stimulating demand for more, better and faster data. And 39% of businesses report a greater demand for real-time analytics and interactive simulations compared with just a year ago. This is clearly a logical step. Why wouldn’t businesses want to harvest the insights from all those data-driven digital customer interactions and transactions, and turn them into business value?

Beating innovation barriers

Overall, the Evolution Report’s findings demonstrate that enterprises are embracing the exciting possibilities of the digital economy and investing to keep pace with consumer preferences and demand.

But although businesses are clearly embracing the digital revolution, obstacles remain to be overcome. Sheer technical complexity represents the most significant of these barriers, and it’s an issue for 44% of respondents.

>See also: Four key tips for getting digital transformation right 

This is reflected in the fact that fundamental issues like storage are impeding digital transformation in almost two thirds (62%) of organisations. In fact storage is seen as an afterthought in a substantial 62% of businesses as they rush headlong to compete by bringing new solutions to market.

Businesses will gain more impact from a digital transformation strategy by making storage integral to their transformation agenda. Super-fast All-Flash storage helps businesses get more value from their data, providing a prime opportunity for them to get ahead in their transformation journey. But businesses have to consider their storage needs sooner in the process, then storage can start to be an enabler of digital transformation – not a barrier.

Sourced by James Petter, VP EMEA, Pure Storage