2016 Predictions: Chief data officers will become the new 'it' girl of IT

Blazent has announced top predictions for the enterprise in 2016 from the company’s Office of the CTO (OCTO). Based on first hand insights and conversations with partners, customers, and industry analysts, Blazent foresees 2016 will be a year of immense transformation for the CIO and enterprise, largely due to a shifting mindset and focus on data quality as a key driver of revenue and risk mitigation. According to current estimates, the average organization loses $13.5 million annually because of bad data. Blazent’s OCTO believes that number will continue to climb into 2016, and IT will look to implement strategies that empower them to continue making good business critical decisions with much greater accuracy. The top predictions are: [caption id=“attachment_2009839” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Thinkstock[/caption] Chief Data Officers (CDOs) will become the new “it” girl of IT, creating tension in the C-suite: In 2015, there was much speculation on the applicability and purpose of the Chief Data Officer role. Driven by the complexity of big data and the need for complete and accurate data, the Chief Data Officer will become increasingly important. As a result, the CTO and CIO will need to make room for the CDO, and tension will emerge within the C-suite until clearly defined roles and associated teams are established. Self-service big data (BDaaS) portals will bridge the gap between data scientists and business analysts, as deep learning insights become more readily available across all areas of the enterprise: Current estimates state that roughly one-third of chief data scientists spend up to 90 percent of their time “cleaning” raw data. Rather than remaining a data janitor cleaning bad data, BDaaS portals have the potential to serve as a bridge between data scientists and the enterprise, where collaboration and time to results can be quickly achieved. This shift in alignment between key execs and business analysts will focus on collectively making critical business decisions that impact the enterprise’s bottom line. Increasing cloud adoption will push major cloud providers to consider regionalized service approaches due to network bandwidth concerns among enterprise customers: With cloud adoption on its way to reaching critical mass, cloud providers will rethink their delivery models with an eye towards becoming even more efficient and tailored to the audience they serve.  A regionalized service approach strategically focused on the needs of a particular market segment will accelerate delivery and potentially provide an uptick in revenue based on the provider’s offering. Big Data and Machine Learning will leave the “trough of disillusionment” and move to the “slope of enlightenment” on the Gartner Hype Cycle: Although machine learning made it into Gartner’s list as one of the most “over-hyped” technologies of 2015, the jury has remained out on its ability to provide a meaningful ROI to the business. Blazent’s OCTO believes the perception towards machine learning will shift in 2016, as the technology becomes integrated into more use cases and the value and impact of machine learning reaches the “slope of enlightenment” on Gartner’s 2016 Hype Cycle.