State of DataOps: Unleashing the Power of Data 1

State of DataOps
Unleashing the Power of Data

Steve Catanzano, Senior Analyst

July 2023

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State of DataOps: Unleashing the Power of Data 2

Research Objectives
Organizations increasingly lean on data operations (DataOps) to deliver real-time data insights that keep pace with the speed
of modern business, using observability and other technologies to better understand the health, quality, reliability, and trust of
their data. But as a majority of organizations now use two or more public cloud services to run their operations, implementing
effective observability strategies across multiple clouds can be difficult due to rising complexity and other challenges. However,
the impact of DataOps is typically worth the effort, as organizations find that observability improves decision making, profitability,
and competitive differentiation.

To gain insight into the state of DataOps, TechTarget’s Enterprise Strategy Group (ESG) surveyed 361 IT professionals at
organizations in North America (US and Canada) involved with data and analytics modern tooling, technology, and processes.

This study sought to:

Identify trends in data management-related Establish the baseline for DataOps

technology usage and purchasing habits. implementations.

Determine critical success factors for Monitor the maturity of the DataOps market
DataOps platforms and technologies. and identify potential technology shifts.

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State of DataOps:
DevOps: Unleashing
Unleashingthe
thePower
PowerofofData
Data 3

DataOps Initiatives Are DataOps Delivers Myriad

Progressively Maturing Benefits for Stakeholders,

kEy
But Challenges Loom

PAGE 4 PAGE 9

findings
click to follow

Data Sources Expansion Drives Multi-cloud Creates

New Requirements and Challenges Opportunity and Challenges for
Data-centric Organizations

PAGE 14 PAGE 20
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State of DataOps: Unleashing the Power of Data 4

DataOps
Initiatives Are
Progressively
Maturing

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State of DataOps: Unleashing the Power of Data 5

Social Analytics and Compliance Drive

| Change in number of end-users accessing data and analytics over last 12 months.
More Users and More Challenges
A wide majority (84%) of organizations report a recent increase
Significantly increased, Slightly increased, Stayed flat, in the number of end-users who have access to data and
38% 46% 13% analytics. Among organizations that most commonly reported a
significant increase over the last 12 months are those with data
strategies driven by social analytics/sentiment analysis, regulatory
0% 100% compliance, and pricing optimization. Rising numbers of data end-
An additional 2% said slightly decreased or don’t know.
users also present challenges, including metadata management,
moving data to where teams require it, and discovering data.

PRIMARY BUSINESS OBJECTIVES DATA MANAGEMENT ACTIVITIES DATA INTEGRATION ACTIVITIES

DRIVING DATA STRATEGY. CONSUMING THE MOST TIME. CONSUMING THE MOST TIME.

• Social analytics/sentiment analysis: 59% • Managing metadata: 51% • Understanding data through metadata: 51%

• Regulatory compliance with optimal • Moving data to where a team requires it: 50% • Using preferred analytics app for all requirements: 44%
data governance: 45%
• Discovering data and its location: 43% • Mapping data to ownership for business context: 42%
• Pricing optimization: 43%
• Incorporating proprietary protocols: 42%

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State of DataOps: Unleashing the Power of Data 6

Significant DataOps Spending Expected Over the Next Year

Nearly half (49%) of organizations plan to extensively increase spending on data-centric technologies tied to DataOps initiatives, underscoring the importance of data within
organizations. The mere presence of data does not typically lead to data-driven decisions without a strategy designed to ensure that captured data is accurate, reliable, and up to

49+39+723K
date. DataOps now fills that role for a rising number of organizations, which are investing extensively to support the strategies and teams executing them.

| Extent to which organizations plan to invest in DataOps solutions over the next year.

“
49%
Extensively

Nearly half (49%)

39%
Moderately
of organizations plan
7%
Slightly to extensively increase
2%
spending on data-centric
Minimally
technologies tied to
2%
Don’t know
DataOps initiatives.”
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State of DataOps: Unleashing the Power of Data 7

| Most important capabilities/attributes of technologies supporting data initiatives.

Data security 36%

Data quality 32%

Data privacy 29%

Security, Quality, Privacy:
The Three ‘Must Haves’ Driving
Data availability, accessibility, and discoverability 23%

Technology Investments Data access technology 23%

Data storage and management 23%

The range of technology capabilities required Data integration 23%

to support data initiatives is extensive, but
Cost, return on investment, and/or total cost of ownership 22%
security, quality, and privacy are far and
away the most common needs. In general, Support for AI/analytics projects 20%
a wide range of technologies are required
to support any organization seeking to Data visualization 20%
become more data-driven as part of their
digital transformation initiatives. The range of Cloud-based services 19%
capabilities for those technologies is equally
Data governance and stewardship
extensive, but organizations most commonly 18%

focus on data security, quality, and privacy. Data movement/migration technology 17%

Workflow automation and machine learning 16%

Event-driven architecture 15%

Usability and self-service 15%

API integration 13%

Data catalog 10%

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State of DataOps: Unleashing the Power of Data 8

| Initiatives prioritized to enable more effective use of data.

Improve data quality 43%

Improve data analytics 40%

For Effective Use of Data,
Organizations Seek to
Improve data availability 37%

Improve accessibility 31% Improve Data Quality,

Analytics, and Availability
Improve infrastructure 31%

Improve and/or extend the use of augmented automation and Among priorities aimed at improving the use
machine learning 30%
of data, organizations primarily target data
quality, analytics, and availability. Each of these
Apply more automation capabilities to the data pipeline 28% areas can pose challenges as organizations
increase their data sources and the
Increase end-user collaboration and sharing of best practices and
results 27% technologies to support data use, particularly
in the age of multi-cloud. But for a DataOps
Establish a data-driven culture 26% strategy to be successful, the data itself must
be top-notch and easily accessible to serve as
the basis for decision making.
Improve data cataloging 25%

Incorporate self-service capabilities 24%

Improve metadata management 24%

Invest in education/training 23%

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State of DataOps: Unleashing the Power of Data 9

DataOps Delivers
Myriad Benefits for
Stakeholders, But
Challenges Loom

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State of DataOps: Unleashing the Power of Data 10

DataOps Commonly Delivers Better Access to Data for Business Users

DataOps enables faster, accurate decision making for users to operate the business in competitive fashion. The most significant benefits of DataOps strategies can vary by
organization, but a common theme is deriving value from data to efficiently power decision making while maintaining compliance and governance. As organizations further improve
data quality and stakeholder access, other benefits, such as faster time to insights, likely will be more common.

| Most significant benefits that DataOps delivers to business users.

54%
Improved access
to data
52%
Improved data quality
and accuracy
42%
Greater agility and
responsiveness

“ A common theme
is deriving value from
data to efficiently power
decision making while
39% 38% 28%
maintaining compliance
Improved compliance
and governance
Faster time to
insights
Increased use of
citizen developers and governance.”
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State of DataOps: Unleashing the Power of Data 11

Developers See Broad Process Improvements Delivered by DataOps

For a rising number of organizations, developers are a critical element of digital transformation strategies, prompting an increased focus on making their jobs easier and more
effective. DataOps serves an important role in delivering those benefits via improved quality and reliability (46% of respondents), greater agility and flexibility (41%), and improved
collaboration and communication (38%). Organizations also note that developers can more quickly develop and deploy applications or other code, which can accelerate the overall
pace of business.

| Most significant benefits that DataOps delivers to developers.

46% 41% 38% 36%

Improved quality and Greater agility and Improved collaboration Faster
reliability flexibility and communication deployment

32% 29% 29%

Faster Reduced complexity and Reduced risk of
development technical debt data breaches

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State of DataOps: Unleashing the Power of Data 12

| Challenges encountered in data management environment.

39% 33% 33%

Organizations Struggle Keeping pace with rapidly Difficulty integrating data Keeping pace with rapid
evolving technology and tools from disparate sources and data growth
to Keep Pace With Data diverse data
Technology Innovation
Distributed, diverse, and dynamic data
ecosystems can introduce a wealth of
challenges to environments, led by the
inability to stay on track with evolving
technology and tools. This challenge 32% 31% 30%
likely emerges most commonly among Limited resources for Real-time support for Real-time tracking and
organizations because they sense that managing and maintaining composable applications synchronization of data in
newer tools and technologies will help data infrastructure using governed data the cloud and on premises
solve other challenges such as data
integration and real-time tracking and
synchronization across environments.

29% 29% 22%

Insufficient skills Limited support and buy-in Lack of clear data governance
and expertise in data from top-level management policies and processes
management and analysis for data initiatives

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State of DataOps: Unleashing the Power of Data 13

Data Quality Management Eats Time and Resources

Managing data across an organization is complex, as IT must ensure that data is up to snuff with organizational expectations. A third (33%) of organizations indicated that managing
data quality consumed the most time and effort, followed by monitoring and auditing data (28%), visualizing and reporting on data (27%), and securing data and implementing
privacy (27%). That such a large range of challenges were identified—with no clear leader—serves as a reflection of a market still in the early stages of maturity. As organizations
continue to invest in technologies to support their DataOps strategies, some of these challenges will be less common.

| Data management activities that consume the most time, effort, and energy.

Managing data quality 33%

Monitoring and auditing data 28%

Visualizing and reporting on data 27%

Securing data and implementing privacy controls 27%

Building and maintaining compliance/governance practices 23%

Tracking data changes and data synchronization 23%

Normalizing and standardizing data 22%

Accessing data both in the cloud and on premises 20%

Managing metadata 19%

Moving data to where a data team requires it 18%

Modeling data and designing schemas 18%

Discovering data and its location 17%

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State of DataOps: Unleashing the Power of Data 14

Data Sources
Expansion
Drives New
Requirements
and Challenges

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State of DataOps: Unleashing the Power of Data 15

Third-party Data Sets on the Rise as Organizations Look to Bolster Analytics Capabilities
Not surprisingly, on- and off-premises applications most commonly appeared as the heaviest monthly contributors to data being acquired by organizations. However, other data
sources remain squarely in the mix and could grow substantially in the coming years. This includes third-party data sets or streams, which are rapidly rising in prominence as
organizations look to supplement their analytics data. Organizations are stitching together first- and third-party data to expand their market reach through predictable models and
other means.

| Data sources accounting for largest percentage of monthly data acquired. | Use of third-party data over the past 12 months.

Enterprise systems and applications 45%

SaaS applications 40%

Third-party data sets or data streams 30% Remained Significantly

the same increased
25% 31%
Mobile data 30%

Ecommerce platforms 29%

Departmental spreadsheets 28%

Somewhat increased
Geospatial technology 27%
44%

Social media 25%

IoT devices 24%

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State of DataOps: Unleashing the Power of Data 16

Security, Compliance, and Accuracy Are Critical for Many When Integrating New Data Sources
Integrating new data sources is a tricky process, as organizations must ensure the data is maintained within established security protocols, compliant with all applicable
regulations (industry or otherwise), and accurate. DataOps aims to streamline and automate the end-to-end lifecycle of data, from data ingestion and processing to data
integration, analysis, and delivery, in turn helping to normalize the integration of new data sources into a standard practice.

| Most important factors when integrating new data sources or technologies into DataOps processes.

42% 41% 37% 29% 29%

Data security and Data quality and Accuracy and scope Value to the business Compatibility with our
compliance consistency of data sources existing data infrastructure

27% 24% 24% 23% 22%

Ease of integration Data format Data governance Cost of data and Scalability
integration

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State of DataOps: Unleashing the Power of Data 17

Organizations Saturate Their Data Environments With Technology Vendors

Deploying and executing on a DataOps strategy is no small endeavor for organizations, which typically require a wide range of vendors to support their data initiatives. Overall,
42% of organizations require 26 or more vendors to execute their strategy. An ecosystem of specialized vendors is valuable, but it can create challenges with skills gaps,
security differences across platforms, data siloes, and complexity.

| Number of technology vendors required to effectively execute DataOps strategy.

29%

42% In turn, this increasingly

leads organizations to seek
centralized management
21% of organizations require 26 or more across clouds, which can help
20%
vendors to execute their strategy. to consolidate processes,
data access, and more.
Although larger organizations
likely will encounter difficulty
12% consolidating data-centric
vendors on a large scale due
to the wide variety of data use
7% cases and requirements in a
typical environment, centralized
management can ease the
3%
overall complexity.
10 or fewer 11 to 25 26 to 50 51 to 100 101 to 150 151 or more

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State of DataOps: Unleashing the Power of Data 18

Monitoring, Validation, and Testing Are Most Commonly Employed to Ensure Data Quality and Accuracy
Organizations implement many processes to ensure that data is being governed and managed to deliver the quality and accuracy the business demands. Getting trustworthy,
actionable data to decision makers, which can include internal users as well as customers and partners, is a top goal and top challenge, as bad data results in bad decisions.
This wide range of methods is a partial contributor to the vendor sprawl currently seen in the DataOps market, so this is an area organizations will increasingly target for
potential consolidation.

| Methods for ensuring data quality and accuracy.

44% 39% 37% 33% 32%

Data monitoring Data validation Data testing Data cleansing Data set measurement
and scoring

32% 31% 31% 28% 25%

Data governance Dedicated staff to monitor Data profiling Data Data lineage
data and address issues synchronization

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State of DataOps: Unleashing the Power of Data 19

“ While many of the tangible benefits of data

observability are closely associated with data processes,
it can have a much larger impact on the business.”

| Drivers for adopting data observability tools.

Observability Adoption
Driven by Key Strategic
Data Initiatives
Culling actionable data from myriad
Improved data quality and accuracy 48% data sources can be a complex, difficult
process, particularly for organizations still
building out their DataOps strategies. In
Increased data management efficiency 42% turn, they increasingly turn to observability
tools to assist in multiple areas of the
data lifecycle. While many of the tangible
Increased demand for data-driven decision making 41% benefits of data observability are closely
associated with data processes, it
can have a much larger impact on the
Growing reliance on real-time data 40% business. For example, improved data
quality and real-time data access can
lead to increased innovation, as decision
Increased regulatory compliance requirements 39% makers can more accurately and quickly
identify opportunities and potential
product improvements.
Improved collaboration between teams 38%

Increased complexity of data systems 38%

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State of DataOps: Unleashing the Power of Data 20

Multi-cloud
Creates
Opportunity and
Challenges for
Data-centric
Organizations

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State of DataOps: Unleashing the Power of Data 21

| Composition of data and analytics ecosystem within organization’s DataOps implementation.

Organizations Blend TODAY 12-24 MONTHS FROM NOW

Their Data Footprint
Across On-premises 32% 34%
More public
Environments and cloud-based
Public Cloud
While public cloud infrastructure
services remain crucial to the digital
transformation strategies within
most organizations, on-premises
environments remain squarely in
37% 39%
Evenly split between public
the picture and reinforce the need
cloud and on-premises/
to centrally manage data across the
typical varied ecosystem. However, edge-based environments
the shift away from on-premises will
continue over the next one to two
years, as just 24% of organizations
say their future DataOps ecosystem
will be more on-premises/edge- 29% 29%
based, compared with 29% today.
More on-premises
/edge-based

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State of DataOps: Unleashing the Power of Data 22

Multi-cloud Highly Common Among DataOps Practitioners

In most modern organizations, multiple cloud infrastructure providers are tapped to support a range of IT requirements. Organizations with DataOps practices are no exception,
with half saying they use three or more providers. A well-managed multi-cloud strategy with centralized management can help to reduce costs, improve access to emerging cloud
technologies, expand data availability, and help maximize data value. Along with public cloud infrastructure and SaaS, private cloud also must be managed, so multi-cloud is just
part of the overall data landscape.

| Number of unique public cloud infrastructure providers in use.

HALF OF ORGANIZATIONS
say they use three or more providers.
32%

25%

13%
12%

7%
5%
3%

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 or more

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State of DataOps: Unleashing the Power of Data 23

| Challenges encountered when implementing and managing multi-cloud environments.

Multi-cloud Challenges
Are Common Across
Environments

Organizations planning to deploy or

expand DataOps strategies should
be prepared to encounter a range of 47% 45% 45%
challenges when multi-cloud is in the mix. Managing security and compliance Managing skills and expertise Ensuring data consistency and
This includes security and compliance requirements across providers across providers accuracy across providers
management (47% of respondents), skill
management (45%), data consistency
(45%), and cost (42%). These challenges
further highlight the requirement for
centralized management that can
eliminate the need for standalone,
service-specific management platforms.
This management consolidation is
critical for DataOps, which requires 42% 35% 35%
accurate, reliable, and secure data for Optimizing spending and Managing visibility and Handling the complexity of
strategies to be successful. managing cost synchronization across managing multiple providers
multi-cloud environments

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State of DataOps: Unleashing the Power of Data 24

Company Description: Boomi aims to make the world a better place by connecting everyone to everything,
anywhere. The pioneer of cloud-based integration platform as a service (iPaaS), and now a category-leading,
global software as a service (SaaS) company, Boomi touts the largest customer base among integration platform
vendors and a worldwide network of approximately 800 partners – including Accenture, Capgemini, Deloitte,
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orchestrate data, while connecting applications, processes, and people for better, faster outcomes.

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About EntErprisE strAtEgy group

TechTarget’s Enterprise Strategy Group is an integrated technology analysis, research, and strategy firm providing
market intelligence, actionable insight, and go-to-market content services to the global technology community.

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State of DataOps: Unleashing the Power of Data 25

Research Methodology and Demographics

To gather data for this report, TechTarget’s Enterprise Strategy Group conducted a comprehensive online survey of IT professionals from private- and public-sector organizations
in North America between May 11, 2023 and May 28, 2023. To qualify for this survey, respondents were required to be involved with data and analytics modern tooling,
technology, and processes. All respondents were provided an incentive to complete the survey in the form of cash awards and/or cash equivalents.

After filtering out unqualified respondents, removing duplicate responses, and screening the remaining completed responses (on a number of criteria) for data integrity, we were
left with a final total sample of 361 IT professionals.

Respondents by numbeR of employees Respondents by Age of oRgAnizAtion Respondents by industRy

Information technology 21%

Fewer than 5
29% years, 1%
Don’t know, 1% Sales 18%
More than 50
24% years, 20% Finance 17%
5 to 10 years,
37% Data engineering/data architect 14%

Executive management 11%

13% 13%
12%
21 to 50 years, Marketing 7%
9% 19%
Software engineering/application
6%
development

Data science/data analytics 5%

500 to 999 1,000 to 2,500 to 5,000 to 10,000 to 20,000 or 11 to 20 years,
2,499 4,999 9,999 19,999 more 23% Research 2%

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