Revenues for Big Data and Business Analytics Will Reach $260 Billion in 2022

IDC forecasts worldwide revenues for big data and business analytics (BDA) solutions will reach $260 billion in 2022 with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 11.9% over the 2017-2022 forecast period. BDA revenues are expected to total $166 billion this year, an increase of 11.7% over 2017.

The industries making the largest investments in big data and business analytics solutions throughout the forecast are banking, discrete manufacturing, process manufacturing, professional services, and federal/central government. Combined, these five industries will account for nearly half ($81 billion) of worldwide BDA revenues this year. They will also be the industries with the largest BDA opportunity in 2022 when their total investment will be $129 billion. The industries that will deliver the fastest BDA revenue growth are retail (13.5% CAGR), banking (13.2% CAGR), and professional services (12.9% CAGR).

More than half of all BDA revenues will go to IT and business services over the course of the forecast. Services-related revenues will also be among the fastest growing areas of opportunity with a combined CAGR of 13.2%. Software investments will grow to more than $90 billion in 2022, led by purchases of End-User Query, Reporting, and Analysis Tools and Relational Data Warehouse Management Tools.

The United States is by far the largest geographic market, delivering nearly $88 billion in BDA revenues this year and more than half of the worldwide total throughout the five-year forecast. Western Europe is the second largest geographic market with 2018 revenues expected to reach $35 billion, followed by the Asia/Pacific region with $23.9 billion. Japan will be the second largest country for BDA investments in 2018, followed by the United Kingdom, Germany, and China. The countries with the fastest growth in BDA solutions are Argentina (20.8% CAGR), Vietnam (19.8% CAGR), Philippines (19.5% CAGR), and Indonesia (19.4% CAGR).

From a company size perspective, very large businesses (those with more than 1,000 employees) will be responsible for nearly two thirds of the BDA opportunity throughout the forecast, surpassing the $100 billion level in 2018. Small and medium businesses (SMBs) will also be a significant contributor to BDA revenues with nearly a quarter of the worldwide revenues coming from companies with fewer than 500 employees.