Data streaming platforms are essential for adopting AI/machine learning at enterprise scale, according to nearly two-thirds of IT leaders surveyed in a new report.
Sixty-three percent of participants in Confluent’s 2024 Data Streaming Report said such platforms extensively or significantly facilitate the growth of AI/ML.
Perhaps that is why their organizations are putting data streaming platforms ahead of AI in their list of priorities this year. Fifty-one percent said data streaming technology is a top strategic priority for their organizations in 2024, while 46% said AI and machine learning are top priorities.
The top reasons why data streaming helps AI/ML, according to the survey results, are that it ensures that ingested data meets quality standards, helps keep Al models up to date and tracks data for governance purposes.
The report is based on a survey of 4,4110 IT leaders familiar with data streaming; the respondents work at companies with 500 or more employees.
Only 11% said their organizations are using data streaming in several critical systems. Fifty-eight percent use it in production for just a few critical systems, with the remaining third of respondents just experimenting or testing data streaming with non-critical applications.
According to Confluent, the typical streaming journey starts with evaluation or pre-production activity (Level 1) and moves up a curve, ending with a central nervous system for data (Level 5).
This year, the report found 58% of organizations surveyed are on Level 3 and 10% are on Level 4. Progressing to Stages 4 and 5, where data is integrated and reused across business units as data products, likely requires significant shifts in technology approach, governance practices and organizational culture. This highlights the ongoing challenges and opportunities in connecting all of an organization’s data
The Advantages of Data Streaming Platforms
Data streaming is the continuous flow of data or events as they occur in real time. Visibility across the business is extensively or significantly enabled, according to 83% of respondents. Furthermore, 79% believe data streaming mitigates the inconsistency of data sources in many or most situations.
Most (86%) believe that data streaming provides at least a two-fold return on investment. The returns are even higher as deployments mature: 59% of those using data streaming in production claim that they have achieved or expect to achieve a five-fold return on investment.
Confluent believes that data streaming tends to be delivered as a platform that incorporates a range of integrated capabilities. The New Stack cannot verify how often that is the case, but a recent study from Redpanda found that 54% of organizations with data streaming already have implemented a solution.
Further Reading
- A 2023 MIT Technology Review Insights report found that 72% of C-suite executives believe that streaming data workloads for real-time analytics is very important to achieving their technology organization’s goals. Meanwhile, 66% believe that platforms that enable new adoption of emerging technologies are very important.
- AI Will Drive Streaming Data Use — But Not Yet, Report Says. Seventy-two percent of people familiar with streaming data believe AI will drive its adoption over the next one to two years, according to a November report from Redpanda. Yet, real-time analytics is by far the most common use case.
Clarification was added to this post on June 5, in the section that explained how survey participants are using data streaming.
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Fifty-one percent of IT leaders in a new survey by Confluent called data streaming technology a top strategic priority for 2024, ahead of AI.