Big Data and Business Analytics Revenues Will Reach $150.8 Billion in 2017

A new update to the Worldwide Semiannual Big Data and Analytics Spending Guide from IDC forecasts worldwide revenues for big data and business analytics (BDA) will reach $150.8 billion in 2017, an increase of 12.4% over 2016. Commercial purchases of BDA-related hardware, software, and services are expected to maintain a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 11.9% through 2020 when revenues will be more than $210 billion.

The industries that will be making the largest investments in big data and business analytics solutions in 2017 are banking, discrete manufacturing, process manufacturing, federal/central government, and professional services. Combined, these five industries will spend $72.4 billion on BDA solutions this year. They will also be the largest spenders in 2020 when their total investment will be $101.5 billion.

The industries that will experience the fastest growth in BDA spending are banking (13.3% CAGR) and healthcare, insurance, securities and investment services, and telecommunications, each with a CAGR of 12.8%. It should be noted, however, that all but two of the industries covered in IDC's BDA Spending Guide will experience double-digit CAGRs from 2015-2020.

BDA technology investments will be led by IT and business services, which together will account for more than half of all big data and business analytics revenue in 2017 and throughout the forecast. Services-related spending will also experience the strongest growth with a five-year CAGR of 14.4%. Software investments will grow to more than $70 billion in 2020, led by purchases of End-User Query, Reporting and Analysis Tools and Data Warehouse Management Tools.

Non-relational Analytic Data Store and Cognitive Software Platform will experience strong growth (CAGRs of 38.6% and 23.3% respectively) as companies expand their big data and analytic activities. BDA-related purchases of servers and storage will grow at a CAGR of 9.0%, reaching $29.6 billion in 2020.

From a company size perspective, very large businesses (those with more than 1,000 employees) will be responsible for more than 60% of all BDA spending throughout the forecast and IDC expects this group of companies to pass the $100 billion level in 2018. Small and medium businesses (SMBs) will also be a significant contributor to BDA spending with nearly a quarter of the worldwide revenues coming from companies with fewer than 500 employees.

On a geographic basis, the United States will be the largest market for big data and business analytics solutions with spending forecast to reach $78.8 billion in 2017. The second largest region will be Western Europe with spending of $34.1 billion this year, followed by Asia/Pacific (excluding Japan) at $13.6 billion. Latin America and APeJ will experience the fastest growth in BDA spending with five-year CAGRs of 16.2% and 14.4% respectively.