The Data Age Is Here. Are You Ready?

Volume and Value of Data Increasing Exponentially in the Data Age
Learn more about Cisco Splunk

Two-thirds (67%) of those surveyed expect the sheer quantity of data to grow nearly five times by 2025, according to a new report from Splunk: The Data Age Is Here. Are You Ready?

The research shows that leaders see the significant opportunity in this explosion of data and believe data is extremely or very valuable to their organization in terms of: overall success (81%), innovation (75%) and cybersecurity (78%).


The vast majority of survey respondents (81%) believe data to be very or highly valuable yet the majority (57%) fear that the volume of data is growing faster than their organizations' ability to keep up.

"The Data Age is here. We can now quantify how data is taking center stage in industries around the world. As this new research demonstrates, organizations understand the value of data, but are overwhelmed by the task of adjusting to the many opportunities and threats this new reality presents," said Doug Merritt, President and CEO, Splunk. "There are boundless opportunities for organizations willing to quickly learn and adapt, embrace new technologies and harness the power of data."

The Data Age has been accelerated by emerging technologies powered by, and contributing to, exponential data growth. Chief among these emerging technologies are Edge Computing, 5G networking, Internet of Things (IoT), Artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI/ML), Augmented and virtual reality (AR/VR) and Blockchain. It's these very same technologies that nearly half (49%) of those surveyed expect to use to harness the power of data, but across technologies, on average, just 42% feel they have high levels of understanding of all six.


Data Is Valuable, and Data Anxiety Is Real

To thrive in this new age, every organization needs a complete view of its data — real-time insight, with the ability to take real-time action. But many organizations feel overwhelmed and unprepared. The new study quantifies the emergence of a Data Age as well as the recognition that organizations have some work to do in order to use data effectively and be successful.

■ Data is extremely or very valuable to organizations in terms of: overall success (81%), innovation (75%) and cybersecurity (78%).

■ And yet, 66% of IT and business managers report that half or more of their organizations' data is dark (untapped, unknown, unused) — a 10% increase over the previous year.

■ 57% say the volume of data is growing faster than their organizations' ability to keep up.

■ 47% acknowledge their organizations will fall behind when faced with rapid data volume growth.

Some Industries are More Prepared Than Others

The study quantifies the emergence of a Data Age and the adoption of emerging technologies across industries, including:

■ Across industries, IoT has the most current users (but only 28%). 5G has the fewest and has the shortest implementation timeline at 2.6 years.

■ Confidence in understanding of 5G's potential varies: 59% in France, 62% in China and only 24% in Japan.

■ For 5 of the 6 technologies, financial services leads in terms of current development of use cases. Retail comes second in most cases, though retailers lag notably in adoption of AI.

■ 62% of healthcare organizations say that half or more of their data is dark and that they struggle to manage and leverage data.

■ The public sector lags commercial organizations in adoption of emerging technologies.

■ Manufacturing leaders predict growth in data volume (78%) than in any other industry; 76% expect the value of data to continue to rise.

Some Countries are More Prepared Than Others

The study also found that countries seen as technology leaders, like the US and China, are more likely to be optimistic about their ability to harness the opportunities of the Data Age.

■ 90% of business leaders from China expect the value of data to grow. They are by far the most optimistic about the impact of emerging technologies, and they are getting ready. 83% of Chinese organizations are prepared, or are preparing, for rapid data growth compared to just 47% across all regions.

■ US leaders are the second most confident in their ability to prepare for rapid data growth, with 59% indicating that they are at least somewhat confident.

■ In France, 59% of respondents say that no one in their organization is having conversations about the impact of the Data Age. Meanwhile, in Japan 67% say their organization is struggling to stay up to date, compared to the global average of 58%.

■ UK managers report relatively low current usage of emerging technologies but are optimistic about plans to use them in the future. For example, just 19% of UK respondents say they are currently using AI/ML technologies, but 58% say they will use them in the near future.

Methodology: The report is based on research conducted by TRUE Global Intelligence and directed by Splunk, who surveyed 2,259 global business and IT managers from the US, France, China, Australia, UK, Germany, Japan and the Netherlands.

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The Data Age Is Here. Are You Ready?

Volume and Value of Data Increasing Exponentially in the Data Age
Learn more about Cisco Splunk

Two-thirds (67%) of those surveyed expect the sheer quantity of data to grow nearly five times by 2025, according to a new report from Splunk: The Data Age Is Here. Are You Ready?

The research shows that leaders see the significant opportunity in this explosion of data and believe data is extremely or very valuable to their organization in terms of: overall success (81%), innovation (75%) and cybersecurity (78%).


The vast majority of survey respondents (81%) believe data to be very or highly valuable yet the majority (57%) fear that the volume of data is growing faster than their organizations' ability to keep up.

"The Data Age is here. We can now quantify how data is taking center stage in industries around the world. As this new research demonstrates, organizations understand the value of data, but are overwhelmed by the task of adjusting to the many opportunities and threats this new reality presents," said Doug Merritt, President and CEO, Splunk. "There are boundless opportunities for organizations willing to quickly learn and adapt, embrace new technologies and harness the power of data."

The Data Age has been accelerated by emerging technologies powered by, and contributing to, exponential data growth. Chief among these emerging technologies are Edge Computing, 5G networking, Internet of Things (IoT), Artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI/ML), Augmented and virtual reality (AR/VR) and Blockchain. It's these very same technologies that nearly half (49%) of those surveyed expect to use to harness the power of data, but across technologies, on average, just 42% feel they have high levels of understanding of all six.


Data Is Valuable, and Data Anxiety Is Real

To thrive in this new age, every organization needs a complete view of its data — real-time insight, with the ability to take real-time action. But many organizations feel overwhelmed and unprepared. The new study quantifies the emergence of a Data Age as well as the recognition that organizations have some work to do in order to use data effectively and be successful.

■ Data is extremely or very valuable to organizations in terms of: overall success (81%), innovation (75%) and cybersecurity (78%).

■ And yet, 66% of IT and business managers report that half or more of their organizations' data is dark (untapped, unknown, unused) — a 10% increase over the previous year.

■ 57% say the volume of data is growing faster than their organizations' ability to keep up.

■ 47% acknowledge their organizations will fall behind when faced with rapid data volume growth.

Some Industries are More Prepared Than Others

The study quantifies the emergence of a Data Age and the adoption of emerging technologies across industries, including:

■ Across industries, IoT has the most current users (but only 28%). 5G has the fewest and has the shortest implementation timeline at 2.6 years.

■ Confidence in understanding of 5G's potential varies: 59% in France, 62% in China and only 24% in Japan.

■ For 5 of the 6 technologies, financial services leads in terms of current development of use cases. Retail comes second in most cases, though retailers lag notably in adoption of AI.

■ 62% of healthcare organizations say that half or more of their data is dark and that they struggle to manage and leverage data.

■ The public sector lags commercial organizations in adoption of emerging technologies.

■ Manufacturing leaders predict growth in data volume (78%) than in any other industry; 76% expect the value of data to continue to rise.

Some Countries are More Prepared Than Others

The study also found that countries seen as technology leaders, like the US and China, are more likely to be optimistic about their ability to harness the opportunities of the Data Age.

■ 90% of business leaders from China expect the value of data to grow. They are by far the most optimistic about the impact of emerging technologies, and they are getting ready. 83% of Chinese organizations are prepared, or are preparing, for rapid data growth compared to just 47% across all regions.

■ US leaders are the second most confident in their ability to prepare for rapid data growth, with 59% indicating that they are at least somewhat confident.

■ In France, 59% of respondents say that no one in their organization is having conversations about the impact of the Data Age. Meanwhile, in Japan 67% say their organization is struggling to stay up to date, compared to the global average of 58%.

■ UK managers report relatively low current usage of emerging technologies but are optimistic about plans to use them in the future. For example, just 19% of UK respondents say they are currently using AI/ML technologies, but 58% say they will use them in the near future.

Methodology: The report is based on research conducted by TRUE Global Intelligence and directed by Splunk, who surveyed 2,259 global business and IT managers from the US, France, China, Australia, UK, Germany, Japan and the Netherlands.

Hot Topics

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Escaping Pilot Purgatory: How AI Becomes an Operational Advantage

In live financial environments, capital markets software cannot pause for rebuilds. New capabilities are introduced as stacked technology layers to meet evolving demands while systems remain active, data keeps moving, and controls stay intact. AI is no exception, and its opportunities are significant: accelerated decision cycles, compressed manual workflows, and more effective operations across complex environments. The constraint isn't the models themselves, but the architectural environments they enter ...

Closing the Gap in Modern Tech and the Tools Meant to Monitor Them

Like most digital transformation shifts, organizations often prioritize productivity and leave security and observability to keep pace. This usually translates to both the mass implementation of new technology and fragmented monitoring and observability (M&O) tooling. In the era of AI and varied cloud architecture, a disparate observability function can be dangerous. IT teams will lack a complete picture of their IT environment, making it harder to diagnose issues while slowing down mean time to resolve (MTTR). In fact, according to recent data from the SolarWinds State of Monitoring & Observability Report, 77% of IT personnel said the lack of visibility across their on-prem and cloud architecture was an issue ...

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Technology management is evolving, and in turn, so is the scope of FinOps. The FinOps Foundation recently updated their mission statement from "advancing the people who manage the value of cloud" to "advancing the people who manage the value of technology." This seemingly small change solidifies a larger evolution: FinOps practitioners have organically expanded to be focused on more than just cloud cost optimization. Today, FinOps teams are largely — and quickly — expanding their job descriptions, evolving into a critical function for managing the full value of technology ...

Clearing the Path to AI: Why Vendor Consolidation Matters Now

Enterprises are under pressure to scale AI quickly. Yet despite considerable investment, adoption continues to stall. One of the most overlooked reasons is vendor sprawl ... In reality, no organization deliberately sets out to create sprawling vendor ecosystems. More often, complexity accumulates over time through well-intentioned initiatives, such as enterprise-wide digital transformation efforts, point solutions, or decentralized sourcing strategies ...

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Nearly every conversation about AI eventually circles back to compute. GPUs dominate the headlines while cloud platforms compete for workloads and model benchmarks drive investment decisions. But underneath that noise, a quieter infrastructure challenge is taking shape. The real bottleneck in enterprise AI is not processing power, it is the ability to store, manage and retrieve the relentless volumes of data that AI systems generate, consume and multiply ...

Observability at a Crossroads: AI, Economics, Complexity and the Enduring Power of Open Source

The 2026 Observability Survey from Grafana Labs paints a vivid picture of an industry maturing fast, where AI is welcomed with careful conditions, SaaS economics are reshaping spending decisions, complexity remains a defining challenge, and open standards continue to underpin it all ...

Explainability Is the New Battleground in AI-Powered Observability

The observability industry has an evolving relationship with AI. We're not skeptics, but it's clear that trust in AI must be earned ... In Grafana Labs' annual Observability Survey, 92% said they see real value in AI surfacing anomalies before they cause downtime. Another 91% endorsed AI for forecasting and root cause analysis. So while the demand is there, customers need it to be trustworthy, as the survey also found that the practitioners most enthusiastic about AI are also the most insistent on explainability ...

Empowering the Human Side of the Autonomous IT Age

In the modern enterprise, the conversation around AI has moved past skepticism toward a stage of active adoption. According to our 2026 State of IT Trends Report: The Human Side of Autonomous AI, nearly 90% of IT professionals view AI as a net positive, and this optimism is well-founded. We are seeing agentic AI move beyond simple automation to actively streamlining complex data insights and eliminating the manual toil that has long hindered innovation. However, as we integrate these autonomous agents into our ecosystems, the fundamental DNA of the IT role is evolving ...

AI Scale Is Outpacing Infrastructure - and IT Leaders Are Running Out of Time

AI workloads require an enormous amount of computing power ... What's also becoming abundantly clear is just how quickly AI's computing needs are leading to enterprise systems failure. According to Cockroach Labs' State of AI Infrastructure 2026 report, enterprise systems are much closer to failure than their organizations realize. The report ... suggests AI scale could cause widespread failures in as little as one year — making it a clear risk for business performance and reliability.