The Big Data We Collect But Fail To Analyse

It's one thing to log data; it's another to actually do something with it. A recent IDC survey of 100 Australia CIOs highlights the areas where data is most likely to be ignored. While newer and more complex forms of data such as video are neglected, we're also not doing much with plain web log files.

Picture: Getty Images

The study, part of broader research into data management commissioned by CommVault, included a question about the data that was collected and whether that data was analysed. Here are the full results for Australia:

Data type	% that capture	% that analyse
User-generated text (forms, emails)	87	82
Transactional data	83	76
Log files	74	67
Machine/sensor data	62	58
Web logs	52	42
Video	49	28
Audio	39	18
GPS data	33	42
Social network chatter	26	17

Analysis for its own sake is pointless, but taking advantage of big data starts by creatively utilising existing sources. Just checking financial data won't help with that.