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Data Analytics Industry Trends
What you need to know.
With the developments in technology, increased capacity for data storage and new data strategies available, staying on top of data trends is extremely important. If you want to keep current and have the ability to make a shift when you need to, you will have the information you need to do so. Furthermore, it will help you deal with the disruptive changes, radical uncertainties, as well as opportunities these trends can bring.
That being said, here are 5 data analytics trends you need to watch in 2021.

Trend#1
Moving to the cloud.
Experts estimate that by 2022, 90% of data and analytics advancement will be connected to cloud services. Cloud-based Artificial Intelligence (AI) will also have increased by at least five-fold in 2023. This means cloud services and data storage are a guaranteed fixture in the future of data analytics.
The cloud has been integral in allowing elasticity for organisations in multiple areas of their operations. This is especially true in the last year as the majority of the workforce transitioned to remote work.
The cloud has enabled organisations to use only the resources they need at the moment, and scale using other resources later once the economy ramps up again.
During this pandemic the cloud capabilities have been proven to support:
- Collaboration – Transferring and sharing of data and ideas
- Automation – Creation of automated processes
- Flexibility – Ability to scale or reduce storage and technology needs.
- Innovation –Offers spaces wherein innovations can be tested rapidly and safely
- Agility – Flexibility to allocate resources to critical areas for risk management and scaling
Hybrid Cloud
We’ll also continue to see an increasing trend in the use of a hybrid cloud – an IT infrastructure connecting at least one public cloud and at least one private cloud. It provides the orchestration, management and application portability to create a single, flexible, optimal cloud environment for running a company’s computing workloads.
These varying requirements are an evolution from the earlier age of cloud computing, where the differences between public clouds and private clouds were easily defined by location and ownership. Sooner than later, the hybrid cloud will be the new standard in gathering and storing data.
Trend#2
Moving beyond pre-defined dashboards.
The time of static dashboards will soon be over as augmented analytics and machine learning push us towards data stories that stream and update in real time. We are also seeing a huge shift into more in-context data stories that are intensely specific and targeted. This will transform the way we interact with and explore data.
In-context data stories will use the gathered information and put it in context to create a clear picture through Natural Language Processing (NLP). It’s a conversion of data into qualified insights within a framework that is easier to decipher. This means that you receive the data that you need constantly, consistently and contextually, thus driving better results.
Trend#3
Smarter and faster AI.
Organisations are experiencing a shift from manually piloting to operationalizing AI driving an increase in streaming data and analytics infrastructures. This means accelerated computations and increased acuity. Developments in creating smarter algorithms will not only aid in the speed of which you receive and quantify data but will also provide higher integrity by detecting anomalies more efficiently.
New approaches to AI and Machine Learning (ML) are also allowing for higher, more accurate performance enabling higher adaptability and flexibility. The advancements in solving complex business situations provide a framework that will soon help you design, model, align, execute, monitor and tune decision models and processes in the context of your business outcomes and behaviour.
Trend#4
Graph analytics.
Graph technologies are not new to data analytics. However, there has been a shift in the thoughts around them. Graph forms the foundation of modern data and analytics with capabilities to enhance and improve user collaboration, machine learning models and explainable AI. Hillingdon Council’s AXIS Project is an award-winning initiative that supports the early identification of children at risk of criminal exploitation.
Graph technologies have also been helping leaders find unknown opportunities within their data that are not so easily seen through traditional analytics. By taking individual entities and exploring numerous variations of possible relationships, graph analytics employs the graph abstraction to represent connectivity and capture the way those entities are related.

Trend#5
Data analytics as a core business function.
Data analytics is shifting from secondary focus to being a core function. Business leaders are beginning to understand how data analytics enable better decision making and identification of previously missed and new opportunities.
A great example of this is the Department of Health(DH). To improve their service delivery and become more client-centric, DH looked for a solution to better manage their data.
By working with our Data Agility team, DH developed a strategy that focused on materially improving the reliability of the data it applies operationally and to analysis. The strategy used a structured approach using data profiling to analyse the data, and from there, build data quality improvement plans. By realising that data analytics had to be a core action in their operations, DH has created a strong platform using reliable data and ensured a good foundation for the future of their organisation.
What Happens Now?
Using data for continuous growth and success.
In the world of data analytics and data science, watching trends is essential to continuous growth and success. You need to be able to know what shifts you can make and when to do so. Data should drive many of our actions within our businesses or organisations. And monitoring trends will help power the actions you need to take to continue thriving.
If you wish to do more with your data and keep up with the fast-paced trends, schedule a call with us and have a conversation with one of our data experts today.
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